Ali Abdullah Saleh

"LandepNews"

Ali Abdullah Saleh

Yemeni president Al Abdullah Saleh made a surprising return to the capital of the city Sanaa on Friday, after three months away in Saudi Arabia, where he was treated after an assassination attempt made on him in June.

His return is sure to enflame further the already tensioned situation in the country, which has slipped into chaos after his departure, as the tribal leaders and the civilian population fight the Republican guards led by the presidential son Ahmed in an attempt to topple the regime that has been in power in this poor country for 33 years.

The fighting continued in the capital of Yemen even after the return of the president, with machineguns and mortars, causing one person to die as mortars hit a square where the people were demanding Saleh’s ouster.

A protest leader said that the president’s return means more division and more escalation of violence. The protestors have called for anti-presidential rallies after the Friday prayer.

Saleh was seriously injured in an attack on his camp in Sanaa in June, and went to Saudi Arabia for treatment. During the three months he kept promising that he would return to Sanna, but people were hoping that they would never have to see him again.

The Saudi and the American officials attempted to convince him to remain in Saudi Arabia and not to continue to stir violence in an already volatile country, whose connections to the Al-Qaeda are very dangerous for the American interests in the region.

Yemeni al-Qaeda branch is seen by the Americans as the most powerful of the organization as it plotted many attacks on American soil. For that matter, the Americans advised the president Saleh to hand over power peacefully and avert the possibility of having the country in total civil war.

Saleh made the same promise Mubarak had made and at about the same time: to remain in power for another year and ensure the transition to democracy and free elections. The people in Yemen did not believe him, as the Egyptians did not believe their president, and demanded his immediate resignation.

The U.S. wanted him to sign an agreement by which he would hand over power peacefully to the vice president, who would then form a national unity government. In exchange, Saleh was granted immunity from any persecution.

Saleh agreed to sign the agreement, then he changed his mind at the last minute, in a move considered characteristic to him by those who know him well.

The return of the president was announced on public television on Friday but no footage of the event was presented. In stead the state television presented old pictures of the president, patriotic songs and fireworks images, while a rather cynic scroll message from the interior ministry was advising the citizens not to fire celebratory gunfire in the air at the return of the president.

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