Yemen has seen a spike in violence in recent days triggered in large part by the return of the country’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh from a short-lived exile in Saudi Arabia, where he was being treated for injuries sustained in a June attack on one of his presidential compounds.
Saleh, under pressure of a popular revolt against his regime, has three times been offered a plan to transfer power, but all three times he reneged on promises to sign on to the proposals.
Yemen's foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, said Tuesday that Saleh remains committed to the idea to transfer power to a deputy. The opposition, itself divided between tribes and pro-democracy youth, gives such statements little credence.
Tom Finn in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, and Davin Hutchins in Washington, D.C, compiled the following report about the current situation in the country.