Yemen's Saleh 'Well' but Date of Return Uncertain
Wounded Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is "well" but the date of his return cannot be confirmed, the deputy information minister said on Tuesday, amid conflicting reports on the embattled leader's health.
"We have no confirmation yet" on the date of the return of Saleh, recovering in Riyadh from wounds sustained in an explosion as he prayed at his palace mosque earlier this month, "but we assume he'll be back within the few coming days," Abdo al-Janadi told Agence France Presse.
"He is constantly in contact with the vice president (Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi) and he is well. His wounds are of no source of worry," said Janadi.
Saleh "is now undergoing plastic surgery from the burns he had suffered in the attack."
But an informed Yemeni source in Riyadh said Saleh, who has not been seen in public since the attack, is still in the intensive care unit at a Saudi military hospital.
"His condition has not improved. He is still at the intensive care unit and nobody can see him," the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The source dismissed any speculation of Saleh's imminent return.
The condition of Prime Minister Ali Mohammad Mujawar and consultative council chief Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghani, who were also wounded in the blast that killed 11 people and injured another 124 and who are also in Riyadh, is "still very bad," the same source said.
Meanwhile, Saudi-based Al-Watan daily reported Tuesday that a plane owned by national airline Yemenia "which will transfer President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his companions to Sanaa later this week," has arrived in Riyadh.
"The Yemeni president is well and began welcoming his visitors at the hospital," the daily said, quoting a diplomatic source.
Political sources in Yemen told AFP the plane was in fact carrying the deputy secretary general of Saleh's General People's Congress party, Abdul Karim al-Aryani, who has secretly visited Riyadh during the past two days.
Reports on Saleh's condition have been sketchy, but Bahraini King Hamad was reported to have called him on Thursday, two days after Saudi King Abdullah had a phone conversation with him.
In Saleh's absence, Hadi has been coming under intensive local and international pressure to heed the demands of protesters to set up an interim ruling council, which would prevent Saleh returning to power.
But Hadi's grip on power is strongly questioned as relatives of Saleh continue to run main security systems. Key among them is Saleh's son, Ahmed, who leads the elite Republican Guard.
Last week, Hadi met representatives of youth protests that have raged since late January demanding the ouster of Saleh. They pressed him to give a clear stance on their demands, and gave him two weeks to decide whether or not he will join the proposed council.
At least 200 protesters have been killed by Saleh's security forces over the past five months.
Source: Agence France Presse
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