Yemen official decries US call for Saleh to quit

SANAA - The United States showed a lack of respect for democracy and its partners in fighting terrorism by renewing its call for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, a Yemeni official said on Saturday.

Washington made its call for Saleh to resign on the day it announced that a CIA drone strike had killed Anwar al- Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric regarded as one of al Qaeda’s most eloquent English propagandists, in Yemen’s northern al-Jawf province. Yemeni security sources said they had located Awlaki with intelligence gathered from a captured al Qaeda operative.

On Friday, the White House said Awlaki’s killing had not altered its demand that Saleh sign a plan under which he would hand over power. Saleh, who has repeatedly shied away from the Gulf-brokered transition deal, has faced more than eight months of protests by Yemenis demanding an end to his 33-year rule. ‘After this big victory in catching Awlaki, the White House calls on the president to leave power immediately?

The Americans don’t even respect those who cooperate with them,’ Yemen’s Deputy Information Minister Abdu al-Janadi told Reuters. Analysts say Saleh has been an inconsistent partner to the West in its fight against al Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing, sometimes helping US-led efforts and sometimes, his critics say, exploiting the militant threat to win more support from abroad.

‘President Saleh was an elected president...They (the Americans) called on us to be partners in the fight against terrorism. The president suffered a great deal for the war on terror. From their position, it seems they do not respect democracy,’ Janadi said.

Saleh returned last week from Saudi Arabia where he was treated for wounds sustained in a June assassination attempt. Yemeni security officials denied media reports that among those killed with Awlaki was Ibrahim al-Asiri, a Saudi citizen believed to have made the explosives used in two foiled plots by the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to blow up U.S.-bound planes.