Yemen Snapshot: With President Saleh Away, Relatives Try to Hold Power Against "Boring" Protests (Kasinof)

General Yahya SalehLaura Kasinof reports for The New York Times:

A senior Yemeni official who was briefed on the health of President Ali Abdullah Saleh said that the president’s injuries would leave him unfit to perform his duties for months, throwing a new degree of uncertainty into a political standoff that has trapped this impoverished desert nation.

With the streets still full of thousands of protesters, and Yemen’s economy in a tailspin, Mr. Saleh’s relatives have insisted on keeping power, clinging to a narrative that paints them as all that stand in the way of Islamist militants’ seizing control. They also hew to the position that the president will indeed return to his post.

As a result, Mr. Saleh’s departure to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment has yet to pave the way for a transition as the opposition, the United States and even some governing party members are pushing for, but instead has prolonged a crisis, as radical Islamists have extended their reach in the south and Yemen, a nation of 23 million, has struggled to survive.

“We are in a stalemate situation militarily and politically,” said Abdel Karim al-Eryani, a former prime minister and presidential adviser. “What do we do? We need to start fresh thinking about how to overcome the crisis.”

There are various proposals on the table, including the creation of a national unity government proposed by a bloc of Persian Gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia and supported by Western nations. Before he was wounded in a bomb attack on the presidential palace a month ago, Mr. Saleh had agreed to the proposal but refused to sign it.

Now, with Mr. Saleh abroad and incapacitated, the biggest obstacle to a political transition may be his relatives who maintain powerful positions within the security forces, mainly his son and three nephews. This group, whom Yemeni officials refer as the “wild cards,” completely dismiss the legitimacy of the uprising that has drawn hundreds of thousands into the streets for the last five months to challenge the president’s rule.

“The problem is that the rest of the world believes that this is a youth revolution,” Brig. Gen. Yahya Saleh, one of the nephews, said in an interview in his office at the sprawling headquarters of Central Security Forces, the paramilitary division he commands.

“How many are there in the squares?” he asked. “Do they represent the majority? In a democracy, does the minority rule the majority? They should have some self-respect and go home. It’s been five months now, and it’s boring.”

A successful businessman before assuming his position in the military in 2004, General Saleh had a casual air, propping a black commando boot on a coffee table and frequently making himself break into giggles. He had an affection for the revolutionary Che Guevara, whose photo was on his cellphone, a somewhat jarring affinity for a general whose main task these days is thwarting a rebellion.

He and his family say that the protesters and the various strands of political opposition, would, if given power, pave the way for Al Qaeda to take over the country.

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