“For how long will these demonstrations continue in big cities and towns such as Sanaa, Aden, Taiz and Hudaidah?” asked Muhammad Sulaiman Al-Ahdal, a Yemeni expatriate living in Jeddah and working as a professional photographer.
Al-Ahdal expressed deep fears to Arab News that Yemen might be on the brink of civil war, particularly as Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh had indicated he would resist any coup attempts by the army to depose him.
Salim Al-Akwaa, a repair and maintenance technician at a computer repair shop in Jeddah, was more pessimistic. “In light of the current deadlock between the president and opposition, civil war might be an unavoidable option,” he said. “There is tribalism, large quantities of arms in the hands of the citizens, religious and ideological differences and the usual tug of war between the north and the south.”
Ali Salim Al-Mahdali, an employee of a car rental company, was worried by the uncertainty of the future.
“I want the situation to resolve itself soon so that I can send my wife and kids to spend their holidays in Yemen,” he said.
Al-Mahdali said like many other Yemenis, he was glued to the television to follow the terrifying news from his country. “The news show us that there are continuous confrontations, bloodshed and victims,” he said.
Saeed Abdullah, a salesman working for a foodstuffs company, was sad about events in his country as they were delaying his wedding.
He said he was to get married in March, but now all his plans had to be postponed. “I hope that the unrest will cease so that I can realize the dream that brought me here in the first place,” he said.
Abdullah hoped that President Saleh would realize that it would be in the best interests of the country if he stepped down.
“President Saleh should know, unlike Libya, the demonstrations in Yemen are peaceful. He should not force the protesters to take arms against him, otherwise the country might slip into a protracted civil war,” he said.
Yemenis who were born here and obtained Saudi nationality were less worried. “I do not care much about the events in Yemen. They have been going on for a long time,” said Faisal Basurah, a Saudi national of Yemeni origin.
He said Yemen had always suffered from internal strife. “First, there was war over unification between the north and the south. Then there were sectarian conflicts with the rebels of the Believing Youth in Saada. So you see, the country was always in turmoil,” he said.
Basurah, however, hoped the country would not disintegrate. “The declared intention of the opposition is to depose the president. We do not know what other agenda they might be hiding. As far as I know, they did not have plans as to who would be in charge if President Saleh decided to step down,” he said.
