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Arabia
Yemeni prez won't run again
2005-07-18
Phew! Had me worried there ...
SANA - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Sunday he will not run in next year’s presidential elections and urged political parties to nominate “young blood” to lead the country. “We want to establish a model for peaceful hand over of power,” Saleh, president since 1978, said during a meeting with political parties and diplomats.

“Political parties must nominate for this post young leaders capable of bearing responsibility based on clear programs to manage the country,” he added. He did not provide any other reasons for his decision to relinquish power.

Saleh said he would continue to lead the country until the presidential elections in September, 2006.
Posted by:Steve White

#6  Stopped there for a day or so in 1965 as a kid. Scariest place I have ever been. Karachi is next on the list.

Then it was Aden just about to gain it's freedom from the UK and become "The People's Democratic Republic of South Yemen."

I remember images of torchlit mobs looking for British people. But, being 9 the memory might be a bit twisted... That said the knives every man wore were rather much.

Posted by: 3dc   2005-07-18 15:28  

#5  Yemen has always seemed a bit like the Arab Albania to me.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis, nee uences   2005-07-18 11:36  

#4  Except that Yemen also has a proper Nasserite party and a Baath party...
Posted by: Fred   2005-07-18 11:19  

#3  Thanks Fred. So he's a pan-arab socialist, aka a Baathist.
Posted by: phil_b   2005-07-18 08:10  

#2  Saleh's been in power since shortly after Caesar got drafted. He became president of North Yemen in 1978, after his predecessor was assassinated. He's oriented toward pan-Arabism. He reuinited North and South Yemen -- I can remember a few pictures of lopped off heads, drying in the sun from that period -- and he's had his problems with Islamists all the while. He decided to come on board with the war on terror shortly after 9-11, much to my surprise. I see him as neither a bad guy nor a good guy, just your average iron-fisted Arab dictator, though under his leadership the country does seem to have taken its penchant for brutal rebellion coupled with brutal suppression to the parliament. His (socialist-oriented) party has the largest bloc in parliament, and its main adversary is the Islamist Islah Party, which is headed by one of the Learned Elders of Islam.
Posted by: Fred   2005-07-18 07:56  

#1  At one point I tried to figure out Yemeni politics. Who's Sunni, Shiia, moderate, Islamic, socialist, pro-Western, etc. I ended up none the wiser and can shed no light on whether this is a good or bad development.
Posted by: phil_b   2005-07-18 01:07  

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