Ex-Yemen President Denies Plans to Return to Power

Local Editor

Former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh has denied plans to seek to assume power in the war-torn country.

Saleh “has affirmed that he was not seeking to return to power nor his son”, a source in Saleh’s office said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media, Anadolu reported.

Last week, France’s Intelligence Online website, said Saudi Arabia was now open to the return of Saleh and his family to power in Yemen.

Saleh’s son, Ahmed, is currently based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Saleh had ruled Yemen for more than three decades before he was forced to step down in 2012 under popular protests that swept Yemen as part of the Arab Spring revolutions.

Earlier Tuesday, Abdullah al-Alimi, the head of the Yemeni presidential office, described reports about Saleh’s return to power as “illusions”.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at shoring up Yemen’s embattled regime.

According to UN officials, more than 10,000 people have been killed in the war, while more than 11 percent of the country’s population has been displaced as a direct result of the conflict.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team