“Because if we transfer power and they are there, this will
mean that we have given into a coup,” Saleh told The Washington Post and Time
magazine.
Saleh has hung onto power despite eight months of mass
protests demanding an end to his 33-year rule and a June assassination attempt
that sent him to Saudi Arabia for three months of treatment for severe burn
injuries.
His surprise return to Yemen last week halted negotiations
over a Gulf-brokered transition plan that had been revived despite days of
heavy violence in the capital.
Over 100 people have been killed in violence that has rocked
Sanaa for two weeks. Loyalist troops have been fighting with the forces of rebel
Gen. Ali Mohsen and the fighters of tribal leader Sadeq Al-Ahmar, both of whom
have joined the opposition.
Saleh wants Mohsen, whose defection in March dealt a great
blow to the president, and Ahmar and his brother Hamid to be excluded from
power.
