| "Kids, pack up the palace. Your father is finally taking us on that vacation he promised twenty-five years ago!" |
Ahmed Al-Soufi, advisor to President-for-Life Saleh
... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence...
, told Radio Sawa that the initiative called for holding early presidential elections and that Saleh never runs for president.
"The initiative calls for early presidential elections on condition Saleh does not compete and bring one of his sons to run for the post of president. Right now, there are deliberations focused on how long it will take to prepare for these elections because Yemen is a democratic state," he said.
The announcement coincided with reports that President Saleh, who left a Saudi hospital two days ago after two months of treatment for injuries he had got in a rocket attack on his palace in June, has decided not to come back to Yemen.
Reports said that the decision came amid mounting U.S. and Saudi pressure on him.
Saleh's body was completely burned in the attack that badly maimed 87 bigwigs in his regime including PM, Shura Chairman and Parliament Speaker and killed almost a dozen of his bodyguards.
The veteran president who has been facing escalating protests calling for his regime ouster underwent nine surgeries for the burns and reports said on Sunday that his doctors are afraid if he comes back his condition might deteriorate.