Saleh vows to resist Yemen protests

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

Saleh vows to resist Yemen protests
By Hammoud Mounassar (AFP) – 3 hours ago

SANAA — Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed Sunday to defend his three-decade regime "with every drop of blood", accusing opponents of hijacking gathering protests in a ploy to split the nation.

Despite two weeks of escalating protests demanding that he step down, after uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia forced the resignations of Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Saleh has repeatedly refused to resign.

In his latest comments, reported by the state-run Saba news agency on Sunday, he accused his opponents of trying to revive secessionist efforts that sparked a short-lived civil war in 1994.

"There is a conspiracy against Yemen's unity and territorial integrity and we, in the armed forces, have served to preserve the republican regime with every drop of blood we have," Saleh was quoted as saying by the state-run Saba news agency in a report on Sunday.



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