Yemen\'s president addresses tens of thousands

Protesters in Yemeni capital Sanaa following Friday prayers In what has become a weekly ritual, Yemen\'s President Ali Abdullah Saleh has addressed tens of thousands of supporters  in the capital, Sanaa  today denouncing protesters and vowing to stay in office.

\"These popular masses-these millions - in this square have come to say \'yes\' to constitutional legitimacy,\" Saleh told the large crowd gathered near the presidential palace.
\"These are the same masses who said \'yes\' to Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2006 (elections) as president of the republic,\" said the leader in a suit and designer sunglasses, waving his right arm in the air to stress the point.
The crowd of tens of thousands, who punctuated his short speech with cheers, was \"a clear message inside and outside the country\", said the embattled president, who has been in power for more than 30 years.
\"This is a referendum on my constitutional legitimacy,\" said Saleh, whose party has said the 69-year-old president should stay put until his latest seven-year term runs out in 2013.

On Friday, the Muslim day of prayers and focus for political rallies in the Arab world, protesters swarmed to rival demonstrations in the capital of the impoverished Arabian peninsula state. More  than 100,000 protesters chanting their support both for and against President Ali Abdullah Saleh as he faces growing international pressure to leave office. Protesters want Mr Saleh to step down immediately after 32 years in office.They have rejected an offer for negotiations to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on a transfer of power.  Many of those at the rally carried banners with pro-Saleh slogans or slurs against the political opposition and Al Jazeera. Others climbed to the top of flag poles and waved Saleh posters.

There were rival anti-government rallies in in other towns, with clashes reported in the southern flashpoint town of Taiz. Mr Saleh used Friday\'s rally to call for the opposition to enter into talks with him, portraying himself as the legitimate leader of Yemen.\"We call on the opposition to consult their consciences and come to dialogue and reach an agreement for security and stability of the country,\" Mr Saleh said.
However, even as the president spoke huge crowds were gathered to oppose his continued tenure in office. One cleric said at a rally near Sanaa University: \"It\'s only a matter of days before this regime is over. This revolution cannot be defeated. Our aim to bring down corrupt family rule.\"

Protesters also want Mr Saleh to face prosecution for what they say are crimes committed during three decades in office. On Friday, several influential tribal and religious leaders switched sides, weakening the president further, says a BBC correspondent currently in Sanaa.  Diplomats say Mr Saleh is spending millions of dollars on staging pro-government rallies. In response opposition activists are trying to launch a nationwide public disobedience campaign and are calling on people to stop paying their utility bills and taxes.Gas and electricity shortages are already widespread..
“I swear, we knew that they were going to attack us today,” said Mahmud al-Shaobi, 33, an activist at the Taiz demonstration who said that men dressed in civilian clothes attacked the protesters with rocks and jambiyas, a traditional Yemeni dagger. “But we, the sons of Taiz came to protest anyway,” he said. “And we will keep doing it until Ali Abdullah Saleh leaves.”

By contrast, the dueling protests in the capital took on a more relaxed — at times, even jovial — feel, a month after government-linked snipers opened fire on antigovernment protesters here, killing 52. The military were notably less present on the streets on Friday than they have been in previous weeks.
Even Mr. Saleh’s tone appeared less defiant in his speech. “The masses of these millions come to these squares to say yes to the constitutional legitimacy, yes to freedom and democracy, yes to Ali Abdullah Saleh, president of this nation,” he said.
But Mr. Saleh also took a jab at his opposition, condemning the antigovernment protest at Sanaa University for allowing men and women to mix. “I call on them to prevent the mixing on University Avenue which is not approved by Islam,” he said. This new line of attack appeared unlikely to gain much traction among average Yemenis, who do not view the president as particularly devout in his religion.
Antigovernment protesters gathered at their normal place in front of Sanaa University, about a two miles away from the pro-Saleh rally. As on previous Fridays, the sit-in swelled to tens of thousands, as large portions of Sana’s population participated in the noon prayers.
With protests showing no signs of abating and political stagnation taking hold, Mr. Saleh has watched international support for rule diminish in recent weeks. According to high-ranking Yemeni officials, the United States and the European Union, in conjunction with the regional Gulf Cooperation Council, are working on a plan that would ensure his departure in the months to come and include a transfer of presidential powers to his deputy immediately.
The rallies came a day after influential tribal and religious chiefs abandoned the increasingly isolated president.
Army and police were deployed in force to avoid clashes between the two sides, with several tens of thousands gathered at squares a few kilometres apart, as on previous Fridays.
There were no initial reports of incidents in the streets of Sanaa. But in the flashpoint city of Taez, south of the capital, regime loyalists shot and wounded eight protesters, witnesses said.
Yemen\'s influential tribal and religious leaders, siding with a 10-week-old uprising, urged security forces to defect and called for the \"immediate\" ouster of Saleh.
The religious and tribal leaders, referring to a proposal from oil-rich Arab neighbours in the Gulf, rejected any initiative to defuse Yemen\'s crisis that does not have Saleh\'s departure as its starting point.
According to political sources, the opposition in parliament could ask the Gulf monarchies to set a two-week deadline for Saleh to hand over power to his deputy and a transitional government ahead of fresh elections.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch criticised the use of dozens of child soldiers in a Yemeni army division that has sided with anti-regime demonstrators in the country\'s often deadly political crisis.
\"Child soldiers recruited by the Yemeni army are now being used by a breakaway unit to protect anti-government protesters,\" HRW said. Before the protests, they had been recruited to fight Shi\'ite rebels in north Yemen.
More than 125 people have been killed in clashes between anti-Saleh protesters and security forces loyal to the president, on whom Washington has been counting to battle an al-Qaeda wing in Yemen.