Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for nearly 32 years but faces growing dissent, also said in a televised speech late Sunday that he will increase salaries for the armed forces in a measure apparently meant to ensure the army’s loyalty.
The Yemeni capital, Sanaa, has seen three days of protests since Saturday, inspired by Tunisia’s turmoil that ousted that country’s longtime ruler. The Yemeni protesters have demanded Saleh step down and that his son doesn’t take over.
Saleh has long been believed to be grooming his son Ahmed, who commands the Republican Guard and the army’s special forces, to succeed him.
“We are against succession,” Saleh stressed in Sunday’s speech to several hundred officers. “We are in favor of change... and these are rude statements, they are the utmost rudeness.” He accused opposition of trying to take over power by rallying people to the streets “while they (opposition leaders) are hiding in the basement.”
Saleh’s remarks reflected he is feeling the heat from growing dissent against his rule. After the Tunisian turmoil, Saleh ordered income taxes be slashed in half and instructed his government to control prices. He also deployed anti-riot police and soldiers to several key areas in Sanaa and its surroundings to prevent riots.
On Saturday, around 2,500 students, activists and opposition groups gathered there and chanted slogans against the president, urging him to leave the country like Tunisia’s former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Yemen granted parole on Monday to a female political activist and journalist detained over the weekend on charges of inciting disorder, a judicial source said.
Tawakel Karman walked free after having been “released with a commitment from her family that she will no longer offend public order and law,” the judicial source said.
But Yemeni authorities on the same day arrested Nayef Al-Qaness, a leader of the Yemeni branch of the pan-Arab party Al-Baath, a security official said.
Nearly half of Yemen’s population lives below the poverty line of $2 a day and doesn’t have access to proper sanitation. Less than a tenth of the roads are paved. Tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes by conflict, flooding the cities.
