‘Yemen’s crisis close to end’, as President Saleh ready to sacrifice for the people

Protesters want Saleh to sacrifice his post.

Efforts of mediation to end the crisis do not stop.

Journalist close to defected army general arrested.

By Nasser Arrabyee/01/04/2011

The political Yemeni crisis is expected to come to an end very soon as all conflicting parties are about to agree on a deal giving President Ali Abdullah Saleh a “safe and honored exit”, sources said Friday.

The sources said that meetings and negotiations between Saleh and opposition with western mediators did not stop from last week.

“I’m expecting a solution today Friday or tomorrow for this crisis,” a source close to the negotiations which include American and European diplomats.
“The meetings and negations did not stop from last Saturday March 26th, 2011,” the sources added.

The President Saleh said on Friday he would sacrifice himself for Yemen, a sentence which was widely understood, he would step down.

“I would sacrifice myself for you and for the Yemeni people,” Saleh told about 2 million of his supporters who rallied in the two big squares of the capital, Tahrir and Al Sabeen and all the streets and sub-streets around them.

The state-run media estimated the people in the rally of AlSabeen Square at 4 million and those who participated in all provinces at 10 million.

Saleh’s supporters, who called their Friday the “Friday of brotherhood and Tolerance”, were chanting “Yes for security and stability, yes for constitutional legitimacy.”

The Saleh’s supporters came almost from all over the country to Sana’a.
They were chanting “The People Want Ali Abdullah Saleh, the People Want Ali Abdullah Saleh”.

At the same time hundreds of thousands were chanting “ The People Want Ali Abdullah Saleh out, The People Want Ali Abdullah Saleh out” in the other side of the corner of the city.

The opposition media estimated their supporters in Sana’a at one million and a half and their supporters who participated in the “Friday of Liberation” in about 15 provinces at 5 million people.

Saleh has not stepped down yet despite the masses of the “Friday of Liberation” which came after the “Friday of Departure” as his detractors and protesters called them.

The President Saleh was very short in his speech today Friday in front of his supporters. He said he would not answer to anyone, in an obvious reference to the opposition media who doubted about the popularity of Saleh and the numbers of the participants of last Friday who came also from everywhere outside Sana’a.

Saleh only thanked his supporters and promised to sacrifice himself for them and finished.

However, the young protesters and opposition parties wanted him to sacrifice his post only not his life.

“We do not want him to sacrifice himself for us, we want him only to sacrifice his post and go,” said the 27-year Adel Abdu Arrabyee, a member of the media committee, at the sit-in camps, the Change Square, at the gate of university.

“We , the youth of revolution, would assure President Saleh that we would not be with his political opponents, but we would be with the new Yemen, Yemen of freedom, Yemen of democracy, Yemen of the civil state.”

Observers, however, said that Saleh’s sacrifice means he would step down after finding out a safe and honored exit in the non-stop negotiations going on behind the scenes.



Journalist close to defected army general arrested

The journalist Abdul Ghani Al Shamiri, was arrested by the Yemeni security authorities from his house early Friday, sources said.

Al Shamiri, was the media person of the Ali Muhsen, the powerful army general who declared his support for the peaceful revolution against President Ali Abdullah Saleh earlier last month.

“Al Shamiri was the one who writes the statements and who answers the questions of the interviews with Ali Muhsen,” said the sources who saw Al Shamiri writing answering questions of an interview with general Muhsen.

“He was just answering written questions and sending them back to the media outlet,” the source added.

Earlier last month, Al Shamiri resigned from the ruling party and declared his support for the youth peaceful revolution.

Al Shamiri was appointed by President Saleh as the chairman of the Sana’a Satellite TV after the end of the 1994 civil war between the south and north.\

Al Shamiri was very active and prominent TV reporter in covering that war in which Ali Muhsen was the most important general after Saleh.