Reply #24: Yemen: "Saleh...gone...injuries serious after all...in hosp. in Saudi Arabia."

[pinboy3niner]

The Guardian's Middle East expert Brian Whitaker tweets:

Saleh is gone. His injuries were serious after all. Second-degree burns on face, shrapnel near heart. He is in hospital in Saudi Arabia.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/middle-east-live/2011/jun/05/yemen-libya-syria-middle-east-unrest#block-2

In a commentary for the paper, Whitaker writes:

A second plane followed (Saleh to Saudi Arabia), reportedly carrying 24 members of his family. This is one indication that to all intents and purposes the Saleh era is finished. He is unlikely ever to return to Yemen as president – and the Saudis and Americans will be working behind the scenes to ensure that he doesn't.


It's also worth mentioning that others injured by the explosion include the prime minister, deputy prime minister, the heads of both houses of parliament and the governor of Sana'a, the capital. Some of them have also been flown to Saudi Arabia for treatment. One of Saleh's nephews, the commander of the special forces, is said to have been killed. So, even discounting Saleh himself, what's left of his regime is in serious disarray.


Given the desperate plight that Yemen is in, this offers the best prospect of a way forward for the country (as I suggested in an article on Friday). There is now a fair chance that the armed conflict will subside. It's by no means certain – and Yemen is never totally conflict-free – but the prospects for relative calm are a lot better now than they would have been if Saleh remained in Sana'a battling to cling on to power.


Secondly, work can begin on the political transition, drawing on some elements from the plan negotiated earlier by the Gulf Cooperation Council – the one that Saleh, after agreeing to it verbally, refused at the last minute to sign.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/middle-east-live/2011/jun/05/yemen-libya-syria-middle-east-unrest#block-3