Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh angrily rejected calls to resign today, claiming the opposition was not sincere in its calls for free elections and was simply mimicking the pro-democracy protests in other nations.
“They don’t have a culture of their own,” Saleh insisted, while accusing the opposition of using young people as human shields while they accused him of being autocratic.
Saleh went on to insist that he would only consider leaving office if virtually every major nation and alliance in the world provided him with “guarantees,” which didn’t seem to be of any specific nature.
This would be in keeping with the past negotiations on Saleh’s ouster, which have always come to an end with the long-time dictator demanding some random concession or insisting some minor error in protocol makes the entire deal completely unacceptable.
Violence continued across Yemen today, with a roadside bombing in the southern Lahj Province killing two civilians and wounded 12 others. Nine government soldiers in the Abyan Province were also reported captured by fighters loyal to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).