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Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh openly defied on Friday his opponents to march forward the presidential palaces to force him out of power, warning that armed forces will be forced to defend the state from saboteurs of the opposition. "We will confront challenges of the opposition with challenges, " Saleh told tens of thousands of his supporters gathering near Saleh's presidential palace in the capital Sanaa. "We warn the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) to stop playing with fire, and to stop storming and destroying the government buildings and facilities, otherwise our people and the military forces will be forced to defend the country's interests," Saleh said. The president also called on the opposition coalition to join " a constructive national dialogue," saying that "if they want to change the regime, they should achieve it through ballot box, not through riot acts." The opposition spokesman Mohamed Qahtan refused to comment on Saleh's speech, but an opposition leader told Xinhua that "this man (Saleh) was not calling for any conciliation dialogue, but rather publicly announced the war against us." "We will continue our peaceful actions, not through engaging in war with Saleh's forces, but through holding comprehensive civil demonstrations across the country to press Saleh to leave office," the leader said on condition of anonymity, adding that "we don't expect that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative would achieve any reconciliation, especially after Qatar's withdrawal." Tensions soared after Saleh in his Friday speech accused the opposition of storming a number of government buildings in southern provinces of Taiz, Ibb and Al-Bayda on Wednesday. |
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