Dubai: Opponents and loyalists of Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh remained engaged in "arm-wrestling" talks yesterday as the country tottered on the verge of civil war.
"I am convinced that the two parties are not seeking an all-out war," said analyst Abdul Gani Al Iryani. "But I am also convinced that the margin of error and bad judgement is now so huge that could drag people to a war they never sought," Al Iryani told Gulf News.
Yemeni cities have been the flashpoint for nearly nine months of ongoing unrest amid continuous public calls for Saleh to step down.
Meanwhile, a fresh wave of protests near Sana'a's Change Square, which has been the focus of the anti-regime demonstrations, erupted yesterday. The crowd chanted "we shall not rest until the butcher is executed", according to reports from the Yemeni capital. The march's area is controlled by dissident General Ali Mohsin Al Ahmar's First Armoured Division.
Iryani played down the statements of western diplomats about achieving an agreement in a week. "The guessing game of what the Yemeni president wanted by returning to Yemen at this time is over. It becomes clear that he came to obstruct the signing of a mechanism to achieve a power transfer," said Al Iryani, who is also the co-founder of the Democratic Awakening Movement, a non-partisan pressure group in Yemen.
To obstruct the signing of the Gulf-brokered power transfer deal will most certainly lead to a military escalation, he noted. "What is happening now is a power struggle between the two parties. Each wants to test the power of the other," Iryani said.
Many observers accuse General Mohsin and the powerful tribal leader Sadiq Al Ahmar, both formerly among the government elite, of exploiting protesters by allowing them to march into the danger zone. Saleh accuses his opponents of trying to take power by force.
Army jet shot down
In a new turn, tribesmen fighting government troops shot down an army fighter jet yesterday morning, military officials announced.
A Sukhoi SU-22 "fell during a regular mission" and opposition leaders were "responsible for the incident", said a military spokesman quoted by Saba state news agency. The fighter jet was downed by anti-aircraft guns near the tribal area of Arhab, 40 kilometres north of Sana'a, where armed tribesmen have been locked in combat with the elite Republican Guard, headed by Ahmad, eldest son of the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, witnesses said.
Arhab has been targeted by heavy air strikes since a general and six other soldiers were killed on Sunday in clashes between tribesmen and the Republican Guard.
