President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ...
vowed on Saturday to defend the republic of Yemen to the last drop of blood, saying at a meeting with the army commanders that the hundreds of thousands of protesters seeking the ouster of his regime are just imitating the Libyan people.
" There is a continuous plot against Yemen's unity and we are in the armed forces have vowed to protect the republican system to the last drop of blood," he told the meeting, adding: " this vow is standing and will remain".
Saleh who has recently made concessions as the protests erupted in the aftermath of the Tunisian revolt, said there are external conspiracies against Yemen and the opposition does not have an idea where the country will go or what the results of these conspiracies are.
What the opposition is doing is just inflexibility and if the opposition parties have real demands we would meet, he said.
We made many concessions through the House of Representatives and Shura but the opposition are not in favor of their country's interest, added Saleh, whose concessions earlier this month included promises not to run for president again and not to bring his son to power when his term expires in 2013.
On Friday, millions of Yemeni people prayed in the streets in many cities of the republic as hundreds of thousands have been continuing sit-ins and determined they will not abandon what they are on until the Saleh government was removed.
Saleh also said that the remarks of former premier Haider Al-Attas to BBC came within the bids of the separatists who are coordinating with the Joint Meeting Parties, the opposition coalition, to oust the regime, saying as if they are saying: let us seize this opportunity to oust the regime and to separate the south then.
"Our nation has passed through many difficulties over the last four years and we have been addressing the situation through democratic and peaceful means. We are contacting the opposition leaders but our efforts went in vain," Saleh said.
I am confident the Yemeni people and army will thwart any plots aiming at taking the country back to two countries and imamate rule, he said, adding that what the protesters are just imitating the Libyans.