Protesters demanded a swift transfer of power from Ali Abdullah Saleh yesterday as his deputy said the veteran Yemeni President would return within days after surgery in Riyadh for blast injuries.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Mr Saleh to act “in the best interest of his people” while the White House called for an “immediate transition”.
“His excellency is making a strong recovery and will return home in the coming days,” Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi said at a meeting of the ruling General People’s Congress, quoted by the official Saba news agency.
In Sanaa, a fragile truce held despite a deadly sniper attack on loyalists of a powerful tribal chief blamed for Friday’s bomb attack which wounded Mr Saleh as he prayed inside a mosque in his compound.
As Mr Saleh, 69, recuperated in a Riyadh military hospital, a committee of youth activists that has been a key player behind the four-month uprising against his nearly 33 years of iron-fisted rule called for a quick transfer of power.
The committee urged “all national and political forces to begin by forming an interim presidential council.”
It also called for the formation of a “government of technocrats” to lead the transition.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Yemen’s capital on Sunday to cheer what they saw as the end of Mr Saleh’s regime.
Impoverished Yemen’s wealthy Gulf neighbours, who have been trying to broker a peaceful transition for months, said their proposal for Mr Saleh to hand over power in return for the promise of immunity from prosecution remained the “most suitable solution.”
“The council member-states could activate (the proposal) and follow up on its implementation, if Yemen parties agree on it,” said Gulf Cooperation Council chief Abdullatif al-Zayani, whose mediation efforts since April have repeatedly run into objections from Mr Saleh.
The EU foreign policy chief recalled that the Yemeni president had almost signed the Gulf proposals on three occasions, and said: “He knows perfectly well what he needs to do for his people.”
“I trust he will do that,” Lady Ashton added.
Washington also reiterated its support for the Gulf plan.
“An immediate transition is in the best interests of the people,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
The parliamentary opposition has vowed to prevent Mr Saleh’s return to power, following a crackdown on anti-regime protests that has killed at least 200 people across Yemen.
“We will work with all our strength to prevent his return,” parliamentary opposition spokesman Mohammed Qahtan said. “We see this as the beginning of the end of this tyrannical and corrupt regime.”
The president underwent two “successful” operations on Sunday, a Saudi official in Riyadh said.
“The first was to remove a piece of shrapnel from his chest, and the second was neurosurgery to his neck.
“The next procedure will be for cosmetic surgical purposes. The period of convalescence is two weeks, after which he will return to Sanaa,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
The embattled president, in power in Sanaa since 1978, had flown to Riyadh on a Saudi medical aircraft late on Saturday, while a second plane carried members of his family.
Saudi Arabia said yesterday it had received Mr Saleh at his request and out of religious duty.
It also said it hoped the Yemeni parties would sign up to the Gulf transition plan.