Yemen's injured president makes video address
SANAA. July 8. KAZINFORM Yemen's embattled president, looking weakened and stiff, has made his first public appearance since he was injured in a blast on his palace compound last month, in an apparent bid to dispel growing speculation about his condition; Kazinform refers to China Daily.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is undergoing treatment in Saudi Arabia, lashed out at opponents seeking to oust him from power, but his dramatically changed appearance belied his show of defiance.
White plaster casts covered his arms and hands, and his face appeared noticeably darker and thinner than before the attack. He sported a short beard and his hair was covered with a red-and-white-checkered Arab headdress cloth, both unusual for the clean-shaven, suit-wearing leader.
In a prerecorded video statement broadcast on Thursday, Saleh said he'd undergone more than eight "successful operations," but did not say if and when he would return to Yemen.
The leader of Yemen's ruling party, who is close to Saleh, said the president's brief speech helped set the record straight. "His mere appearance on TV has clarified things for people and silenced many tongues by showing that the president is in good health," said the politician, Yasser Yemani.
However, Mohammed al-Thahiri, a protest leader in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, said Saleh's career is over. "It's clear form the way that he looks that he can't come back. This man is no longer able to rule the country," said al-Thahiri.
Wearing a white robe and sitting rigidly in an armchair, Saleh accused "terrorist elements" of carrying out the June 3 attack. He said dialogue is the only way out of the political crisis that has brought this impoverished corner of the Arabian Peninsula to the brink of civil war.
"Where are the conscious people? Where are the honest people? Where are the believers and the men who fear Allah? Why don't they stand with dialogue?" he said. "They should stand with dialogue so we can find solutions."
"Many have understood democracy incorrectly, through incorrect practices," Saleh said in the seven-minute video recorded in Saudi Arabia and broadcast on Yemen state TV. He accused his opponents of practicing the politics of "hijacking" and "arm-twisting" while describing himself as a defender of democracy and stability.
"We love participation, though the constitution, though the law," he said.
Saleh did not mention the US-backed proposal by Yemen's powerful Gulf Arab neighbors that would see him transfer power in exchange for immunity from prosecution; Kazinform cites China Daily.
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