Saleh balks at latest power deal

SANAA, Yemen – Yemen’s embattled president is now objecting to key points of a U.S.-backed deal that calls for him to step down in return for immunity from prosecution, a member of his ruling party said Thursday.

The official said President Ali Abdullah Saleh spoke during a meeting with his top party officials in the Saudi capital Riyadh, where he is recuperating from severe burns and other wounds sustained in a June attack on his compound in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital.

The remarks reflect yet another stalling maneuver by Saleh, who has clung to power in the face of nearly six months of street protests demanding his ouster and a deteriorating economic and security situation in Yemen.

Yemen’s uprising was inspired by the revolts that swept across other parts of the Arab world this year. The protests have often turned violent, with Saleh’s security forces using deadly force against the protesters.

Saleh was rushed to Saudi Arabia in June for emergency medical treatment. Since he left, the country has been in limbo, with both the protesters’ demands and the question of who will succeed Saleh unresolved.

The power transfer deal, proposed by a Saudi-led group of Arab Gulf nations, envisages Saleh stepping down and handing power to his deputy, who would rule until presidential and parliamentary elections take place.

The Yemeni official who attended Thursday’s meeting told the Associated Press from Riyadh that Saleh is now demanding that the deal spell out the “mechanism of implementation” of the power transfer.