SANAA: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, faced with more than eight months of street protests demanding his ouster, said on Saturday he is ready to step down within days but would not hand over to his foes.
“I don't want power and I will give it up in the coming days,” the veteran leader said in a televised speech during which he launched a tirade against his opponents.
Saleh, 69, said it was “impossible to let them destroy the country,” whereas there were “sincere men, whether they be military or civilian” who were capable of governing Yemen.
The president, who has been in power for 33 years, has refused to hand over power under the terms of a transition plan drawn up by Yemen's oil-rich Arab neighbours in the Gulf.
In an early reaction, Yemen's new Nobel Peace Prize winner and leading woman activist Tawakkul Karman said Saleh's latest apparent offer could not be trusted and that protests would continue.
“We don't believe this man and if he wants to step down, okay, that belongs to him,” she told Al-Jazeera television.
“He has to hand over the power; he has to give the power that he has stolen to the revolution people, the revolution rule. We don't believe him,” Karman said.
“We are continuing our peaceful revolution.” Anti-regime protesters in Yemen have since January occupied squares in main cities and held demonstrations.
They have been backed by opposition parties, some of which the Saleh regime accuses of having armed militias.
They also have been supported by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who defected along with his First Armoured Division and has been providing protection for protesters camped out at “Change Square” in Sanaa.
Saleh has opposed domestic and international calls to quit, insisting that change should come about through the ballot box.
He has repeatedly refused to sign a Gulf Cooperation Council-brokered power transfer deal under which he would hand over to his deputy Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi in return for immunity from prosecution.
The opposition has rejected any talks with Saleh before he steps down.
UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar left Sanaa on Monday after urging the country's leaders to agree on a political deal.
“It's up to Yemeni leaders to reach a political agreement... and they must not fail to take up their responsibility,” state news agency Saba quoted him as saying.
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