{"id":329760,"date":"2011-03-22T15:45:03","date_gmt":"2011-03-22T15:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/03\/22\/yemens-president-gives-defiant-speech\/"},"modified":"2011-03-22T15:45:03","modified_gmt":"2011-03-22T15:45:03","slug":"yemens-president-gives-defiant-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/22\/yemens-president-gives-defiant-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Yemen&#8217;s president gives defiant speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div readability=\"120.274927179\"><!-- google_ad_section_start --><!-- CONTENT -->  <!-- REAP --><!--startclickprintexclude--><!-- PURGE: \/2011\/WORLD\/meast\/03\/22\/yemen.protests\/t1larg.yemen.m22.gi.afp.jpg --><!-- KEEP --><!--===========CAPTION==========--><\/p>\n<div readability=\"8\">\n<p>Protesters carry the body of a comrade who was among dozens killed in last week&#8217;s violent crackdown on protests in Yemen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--===========\/CAPTION=========--><!-- \/PURGE: \/2011\/WORLD\/meast\/03\/22\/yemen.protests\/t1larg.yemen.m22.gi.afp.jpg --> <!--endclickprintexclude--><!-- \/REAP --><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><b>STORY HIGHLIGHTS<\/b><\/p>\n<ul><!-- google_ad_section_start --><\/p>\n<li><b><b>NEW:<\/b> <\/b>President Saleh makes an offer to the opposition, a ruling party official says<\/li>\n<li>The opposition demands he step down immediately<\/li>\n<li>Saleh warns of civil war and says a coup will not succeed<\/li>\n<li>Yemen is a key al Qaeda battleground <\/li>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--endclickprintexclude--> <!--startclickprintinclude--> <\/p>\n<p><b>(CNN)<\/b> &#8212; Yemen&#8217;s embattled president told the country&#8217;s largest opposition bloc he would step down at the beginning of next year, a ruling party official told CNN. <\/p>\n<p>The opposition rejected the offer, demanding that Ali Abdullah Saleh resign immediately.<\/p>\n<p>Saleh pushed back against opponents including some of his own top generals Tuesday, defying calls for him to quit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Those who want to reach power through a coup will be unable to. This is impossible. The scenario will turn into a civil war,&#8221; Saleh said in a televised speech.<\/p>\n<p>  <!--startclickprintexclude--><\/p>\n<p><!--endclickprintexclude--><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is a constitution, and there are rules. There is the will of the people. It is impossible for a minority to control the fate of the nation,&#8221; he insisted.<\/p>\n<p>It is not clear when he made his offer to the opposition JMP bloc, the largest opposition group, but they clearly rejected his speech Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Any offer that does not include the president&#8217;s immediate resignation is rejected,&#8221; said Mohammed Qahtan, a spokesman for JMP, the largest opposition bloc.<\/p>\n<p>The president&#8217;s defiant speech came a day after Saleh met a top general who announced he was supporting the protests that have been roiling Yemen since the beginning of the year. <\/p>\n<p>Even officials in Saleh&#8217;s own party expressed worries about the speech, which came on the heels of a particularly tense day in Yemen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It will cause more concern, and I think this will only increase the tension,&#8221; ruling party official Mohammed Abulahoum told CNN.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I hope that the military and the police and all units will not obey any order of any individual that asks them to point their guns at their people. After all, they are there to defend the people,&#8221; he added. <\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Saleh and Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar discussed a deal for a peaceful transition of power that would allow Saleh to stay in place for the rest of the year, a Yemeni official and senior U.S. official said.<\/p>\n<p>Saleh Tuesday appeared to criticize the powerful general and other officers who declared their support for the opposition Monday, saying, &#8220;Any division in the military will have negative impacts on the whole country.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p>A government official said the speech was a warning to those who broke ranks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Saleh was sending a message to the generals who defected yesterday, telling them, you know you&#8217;re going to come back, so why not come back now rather than trying to do so later?&#8221; said the official, who asked not to be named discussing the sensitive situation.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Ahmar, who belongs to an important tribe whose backing is significant for Saleh, said Monday he would order his troops to protect civilians demonstrating against the president.<\/p>\n<p>A wave of other officials announced their support for the opposition Monday.<\/p>\n<p>They included Yemen&#8217;s ambassador to Britain and the embassy&#8217;s entire diplomatic staff, and Yemen&#8217;s ambassador to the European Union, Mohamed Jaffer. <\/p>\n<p>Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years, has been a key U.S. ally as al Qaeda turns his country into a base.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday the United States was &#8220;obviously concerned about the instability in Yemen. We consider al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is largely located in Yemen, to be perhaps the most dangerous of all the franchises of al Qaeda right now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Radical American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is believed to be hiding in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The cleric has been linked to terror plots including the attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day 2009, and he corresponded separately with a British Airways employee about trying to smuggle explosives onto planes.<\/p>\n<p>Top American officials, including U.S. President Barack Obama&#8217;s counterterrorism chief, have traveled to Yemen to meet with Saleh, and leaked diplomatic cables suggest Saleh&#8217;s government helped disguise strikes by U.S. unmanned drones on terror targets in Yemen by calling them Yemeni actions.<\/p>\n<p><b>CNN&#8217;s Tracy Doueiry, Caroline Faraj, Elise Labott, Richard Roth, Pam Benson and Jo Shelley and journalist Hakim Almasmari contributed to this report.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><!--endclickprintinclude--><!-- google_ad_section_end --><br \/>\n<!-- \/cnn_strybtmcntnt --><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>[Read more here|Read the original here|Read more from the original source|Continued here|Read more|More here|View original post here|More|See more here|See original here|Originally posted here|Here is the original post|See the original post|The rest is here|Read the rest here|See the rest here|Go here to read the rest|Go here to see the original|See the original post here|Read the original post|Original post|Read the original|Link|Excerpt from|View post|Visit link|Follow this link|Continue reading here|See the article here|Read this article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Protesters carry the body of a comrade who was among dozens killed in last week&#8217;s violent crackdown on protests in Yemen. STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: President Saleh makes an offer to the opposition, a ruling party official says The opposition demands he step down immediately Saleh warns of civil war and says a coup will not succeed Yemen is a key al Qaeda battleground (CNN) &#8212; Yemen&#8217;s embattled president told the country&#8217;s largest opposition bloc he would step down at the beginning of next year, a ruling party official told CNN. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-329760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Yemen&#039;s president gives defiant speech - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/22\/yemens-president-gives-defiant-speech\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Yemen&#039;s president gives defiant speech - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Protesters carry the body of a comrade who was among dozens killed in last week&#039;s violent crackdown on protests in Yemen. STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: President Saleh makes an offer to the opposition, a ruling party official says The opposition demands he step down immediately Saleh warns of civil war and says a coup will not succeed Yemen is a key al Qaeda battleground (CNN) -- Yemen&#039;s embattled president told the country&#039;s largest opposition bloc he would step down at the beginning of next year, a ruling party official told CNN.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/22\/yemens-president-gives-defiant-speech\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/22\/yemens-president-gives-defiant-speech\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Yemen&#8217;s president gives defiant speech\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-22T15:45:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/22\/yemens-president-gives-defiant-speech\/\"},\"wordCount\":843,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/22\/yemens-president-gives-defiant-speech\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/22\/yemens-president-gives-defiant-speech\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/22\/yemens-president-gives-defiant-speech\/\",\"name\":\"Yemen's president gives defiant speech - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-22T15:45:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/22\/yemens-president-gives-defiant-speech\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Yemen's president gives defiant speech - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/22\/yemens-president-gives-defiant-speech\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Yemen's president gives defiant speech - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Protesters carry the body of a comrade who was among dozens killed in last week's violent crackdown on protests in Yemen. 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