Geo World

Saleh will not return to Yemen: Saudi official

SANAA: Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, being treated for shrapnel wounds in Riyadh, will not return home, a top Saudi official said on Friday, contrary to Sanaa's claims that he will return soon. A Yemeni official promptly denied the claim, as hundreds of thousands of anti-Saleh demonstrators pressed for an interim ruling council that would replace the veteran leader and make sure he does not return to power. "The Yemeni president will not return to Yemen," the Saudi official said, requesting anonymity. "It has not been decided where he will stay," the official added, apparently suggesting that Saleh might eventually leave Saudi Arabia for another country. The official did not specify whether the decision not to return home was taken by Saleh himself. Yemen's deputy information minister Abdo al-Janadi dismissed the claim. "President Saleh will return in the coming few days," he said. The veteran leader was flown to Riyadh on June 4 on board a Saudi medical aircraft, a day after he was wounded in a bomb explosion at a mosque inside his Sanaa presidential compound. He has not been seen in public since the attack.(AFP)