U.S. says Saleh's return home matters little in deal signing

English.news.cn   2011-06-22

WASHINGTON, June 21 (Xinhua) -- The United States said on Tuesday that it would request Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to sign a Gulf-brokered agreement to cede power and pave the way for transition whether he returns home or not.

"Whether he stays in Saudi Arabia, whether he goes back, our request is the same: He needs to sign the GCC agreement and we need to move on with the transfer to a more democratic, progressive Yemen," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a regular news briefing.

Saleh had broken promise three times to sign the deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), in which the president agreed to step down in return for his immunity from prosecution. Clashes broke out in late May between government and tribal forces, and Saleh was badly wounded along with several senior officials when a rocket struck his presidential palace on June 3. He was airlifted to Saudi Arabia the following day for treatment.

A senior official of Saleh's ruling party said on Tuesday that the president is due to return to Sanaa on Friday.

Nuland said that Jeffrey Feltman, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs who is on a visit to Oman and Yemen, would meet with Yemeni Acting President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and others on how to move the process forward.

Anti-government protests in Yemen started in mid-February, plunging much of the poorest Arab country into turmoil.

Editor: Mu Xuequan