Yemen People to block Saleh’s return

Yemen’s Revolutionary People says it will do everything within its power to prevent the return of the country’s president from Saudi Arabia, where he has fled to under the pretext of receiving treatment.

“We will work with all our strength to prevent his return,” Mohammed Qahtan, spokesman for the Common Forum parliamentary opposition collation said on Sunday, referring to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, AFP reported.

“We see this as the beginning of the end of this tyrannical and corrupt regime,” he added.

Following a reported rocket attack on the presidential palace on Friday, Saleh went to the kingdom along with several other top Yemeni officials to be treated for alleged serious shrapnel wounds and burns on his chest and neck.

Afterwards, dozens of Yemeni youth celebrated what they called the fall of the regime in the capital of Sana’a, chanting, “Today, Yemen is a newborn” and “This is it, the regime has fallen.”

The president has been in office for nearly 33 years with several opposition members arguing that his long-promised reforms have not been materialized.

Hundreds of thousands of people have turned out for near daily demonstrations in Yemen’s major cities since late January, calling for an end to corruption and unemployment and demanding Saleh’s ouster.

The opposition spokesman said Saleh’s sons must be “forced to hand power over to (Vice President) Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi,” who under the constitution replaces the absent ruler.

“We are ready to cooperate with Abdrabuh but the problem is whether his children are ready to hand power over to him,” he said.