The official said President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower...
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 Soddy 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 during until presidential and parliamentary elections take place.
The Yemeni official who attended Thursday's meeting told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named after returning back to Sanaa that Saleh is now demanding that the deal spell out the "mechanism of implementation" of the power transfer.
"This doesn't means rejecting the initiative," the official quoted Saleh as saying. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media.
It remained unclear what Saleh meant by "mechanism of implementation."
The Yemeni opposition accuses Saleh of being deliberately vague and trying to buy more time while the country sinks into more uncertainty and chaos.