Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he would leave power Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday he would leave power in the coming days, the closest the veteran leader has come to announcing he plans to step down after nine months of mass protests against his 33 year rule.
“I reject power and I will continue to reject it, and I will be leaving power in the coming days,” Saleh said in a speech on state television.
Saleh has been clinging to his position while opposition and ruling party representatives cast about for a formula to see through a transition-of-power deal.
“I call on my supporters to persevere and to confront any challenge,” Saleh said.
A government official said Saleh was merely indicating readiness to reach a deal to end months of unrest.
Confusion over Saleh’s intent was familiar fare in a conflict that has dragged on since January when protesters first took to the streets to demand reform and an end to the grip on power that Saleh and his family have had for 33 years.
Saleh has already pulled back three times from signing a Gulf Arab peace initiative that would seen him form an opposition-led cabinet and then hand power to his deputy before early parliamentary and presidential elections.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said that he will meet anti-government protesters\' demands and leave power in the coming days, but opposition leaders remain sceptical.
Many of Saleh\'s opponents believe that if he does agree to step down, it will be to transfer power to a family member - a charge he vehemently denied.
\"How many are the president\'s sons? How big is the president\'s family? How many brothers or grandchildren? How many of those are in power?\" Saleh said.
Saleh\'s son Ahmed and several of his nephews control powerful military units, and Ahmed has long been seen as the heir apparent to the presidency.
Saleh said he would meet with parliament in the coming days to \"transparently discuss\" the situation in Yemen, but stopped short of making a firm commitment to quit.
Tawakul Karman, a prominent Yemeni activist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, told Al Jazeera that protesters were sceptical of Saleh\'s announcement - as he had promised to step down in the past, but had not.
\"He has to hand over the power; he has to give the power that he has stolen to the revolution people, the revolution rule. We don\'t believe him,\" she said. \"We are continuing our peaceful revolution,\" she added.
Abdo Al Janadi, Yemen\'s deputy minister of information, told Al Jazeera that what Saleh meant by saying that he was stepping down is that he had accepted the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) Initiative - a plan under which he would hand over power in return for a promise of immunity from prosecution.
\"The president has accepted the GCC initiative; which states for his resignation and early elections,\" he said. \"Saleh’s statement means he will remain in office until the mechanism for the implementation of the initiative is agreed on.\"
According to Janadi, \"The word \'few days\' means days or weeks until the negotiating parties reach an agreement.\"
\"We will not see the same as what happened in Egypt or Libya,\" he added.
Saleh had been involved in the GCC negotiations for months, repeatedly promising to step down only to change his position at the last minute.
A secret legal memorandum paved the way for the killing of the American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen late last month, according to US media reports.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that the memo, written last year, found that Awlaki\'s killing would be lawful only if it were not feasible to take him alive.
The memorandum followed months of extensive interagency deliberations and offers a glimpse into the legal debate that led to US President Barack Obama\'s decision to kill Awlaki, a US citizen, without a trial, the paper added.
The secret document justified the killing despite an executive order banning assassinations, a federal law against murder, protections in the Bill of Rights and various strictures of the international laws of war, the Times reported, citing sources familiar with the analysis.
The memo, however, was narrowly drawn to the specifics of Awlaki\'s case and did not establish a broad new legal doctrine to permit the targeted killing of any US citizens believed to pose a terrorist threat, according to the Times.
The Obama administration has refused to acknowledge or discuss its role in the drone strike that killed Awlaki.
Awlaki was killed in an air raid along with four others believed to be members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The attack targeted two vehicles travelling through an al-Qaeda stronghold in central Yemen.