Saleh would not leave Yemen for any reason, paper says

By Nasser Arrabyee,21/09/2012


The Yemeni former President Ali Abdullah Saleh would not leave Yemen now, nor in the future, said sources in his office on Friday.


"The former President Ali Abdullah Saleh has not any desire to leave his homeland for any reason whatsoever," said Yemen Today daily, quoted the sources as saying. Yemen Today is one of Saleh's party newspapers.


"Yemen needs Saleh in such circumstances, so he should not leave now nor in the future," the paper said.


Earlier in the week,the US ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstien said that the American embassy delayed a visa request for Saleh and a number of his companions. Mr Feierstein said in a press conference earlier this week in Sanaa, that the time was not appropriate for Saleh to visit US for further treatments.


The Saleh 's office told the paper,however, that Feierstein justified the delay of Saleh's visa by saying the time of the visit would coincide with the trial of the Yemeni Guantanamo detainee Abdul Rahim Al Nashiri who is accused of bombing the USS Cole in Aden Harbor in 2000 in which 19 American sailors were killed. The American court may recall Saleh for testimony over the Cole issue, Feierstein justified according to the paper.


Saleh's testimony would cause embarrassment to the US Administration, the paper said.


Earlier this year, the American court asked Saleh, when he was in a treatment trip in US, and wax still in power, to attend for testimony over the Cole issue, but he refused.


Saleh's office also said that Saleh had never asked for the visa, but Mr Feierstein and President Hadi insisted on him to go to United States for further treatments. Respecting that insistence for his health, Saleh handed his passport and passports of his companions for visa process.