After months of negotiating power transfer deals to near-finality and then angrily vetoing them at the last second, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has decided to save himself some time and delegate the negotiation to Major General Hadi, his top deputy and President Obama’s preferred successor to the position of Yemeni dictator.
The move already seems to be going nowhere, however, as even though Hadi has repeatedly refused to get involved in negotiations in the past, his insinuation into the events is unlikely to lead to a breakthrough deal.
That’s because Saleh insists he will still have the right to reject the deal personally if (or likely when) it is found to be “unfair” or in some way an insult to his nearly 35-year reign.
Saleh is still in Saudi Arabia, though out of the hospital after surviving an assassination attempt. The opposition urged Saleh to step down immediately and leave the negotiation on a transfer of power entirely to Hadi.
It baffles me that this guy is sill alive and at it while wheeling and dealing with the US and butchering his own people. Somebody should have gifted him with a ticking briefcase just like he did to his predecessor.