Sanaa, Yemen • Facing intensifying pressure to leave office, Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh told the al-Arabiya television network on Saturday that he was prepared to step down “with respect,” even within hours.
Negotiations are under way for his possible exit, but Saleh and his opponents have been unable to agree on a timeline or conditions for his departure. Saleh has offered numerous concessions and agreed to step down by the end of the year. But opposition groups demanded he resign immediately.
Saleh’s advisers met Saturday with U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein as well as tribal and military leaders who have defected to the opposition.
“These demands are impossible to accept,” presidential spokesman Ahmed al-Sufi told The Associated Press, referring to the opposition’s demands. Saleh has offered to hold presidential elections at year’s end rather than when they were planned, in 2013, .
