Yemen protesters press for swift power transfer

president from surgery in Saudi Arabia following a bomb attack.
In Sanaa, a fragile truce held despite a deadly sniper attack on loyalists of a powerful tribal chief blamed for Friday’s bomb attack which wounded president Ali Abdullah Saleh as he prayed inside a mosque in his compound.
As Saleh recuperated in a Riyadh military hospital, a youths’ committee that has been a key player behind the four-month uprising against his nearly 33 years of iron-fisted rule called for a quick power transfer.
The youths’ committee urged “all national and political forces to begin by forming an interim presidential council . . . and creating a national transitional council,” in a statement.
The panel also called for the formation of a “government of technocrats” to lead the transition.
Saleh”s party, however, insisted that the president remains head of state and will be back after surgery.
The youth group, organisers of an anti-regime sit-in demonstration at a square in Sanaa since February, encouraged Yemenis to celebrate what they hailed as “the ouster of Saleh.”
“The revolution has achieved its first objective – the ouster of Saleh,” it said, adding the protesters would “continue (their) sit-in until the achievement of all goals.”
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Yemen’s capital on Sunday to cheer what they said was the end of Saleh’s regime.
Meanwhile, the Gulf Cooperation Council said its proposed exit deal, by which Saleh would step down in return for immunity against prosecution, remained the “most suitable solution.”
“The council member-states could activate (the proposal) and follow up on its implementation if Yemen parties agree on it,” said GCC chief Abdullatif al-Zayani, whose mediation since April has met with conditions imposed by Saleh.
The parliamentary opposition has vowed to prevent Saleh’s return to power, following a crackdown on anti-regime protests that has killed at least 200 people across Yemen.
“We will work with all our strength to prevent his return,” parliamentary opposition spokesman Mohammed Qahtan told AFP. “We see this as the beginning of the end of this tyrannical and corrupt regime.”
But a spokesman for the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) told Al-Arabiya news channel: “President Saleh will return to Yemen within days.”
The 69-year-old president underwent two operations on Sunday, a Saudi official in Riyadh told AFP.
“President Saleh underwent two operations that were successful.
“The first was to remove a piece of shrapnel from his chest, and the second was neurosurgery to his neck.
“The next procedure will be for cosmetic surgical purposes. The period of convalescence is two weeks, after which he will return to Sanaa,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
The embattled president, in power in Sanaa since 1978, had flown to Riyadh on a Saudi medical aircraft late on Saturday, while a second plane carried members of his family. – AFP.