Yemen’s president to travel to U.S.
Yemen’s embattled president is planning a trip to the United States, a party spokesman said Saturday, even as his country is embroiled in a factional conflict amid protesters’ calls for democracy that continue to draw a heavy-handed government response and persistent bloodshed.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has agreed to step down from power after months of national unrest, is not making the trip to seek treatment for injuries sustained from an assault against his presidential palace, the spokesman said. He was wounded in June in a bomb attack, forcing him to seek treatment in neighboring Saudi Arabia.
The president wants to “get away from attention, cameras, and allow the unity government to prepare properly for elections,” the spokesman added.
Last month, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Saleh had told him he would come to New York for medical treatment after signing an agreement to end his 33-year rule.