By Amena Bakr, Mohamed Sudam

Reuters

RIYADH/SANAA: Wounded Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, is well enough to return soon to Yemen and will make a media appearance within days, a source close to Saleh told Reuters.
Speculation about Saleh’s health and the likelihood of his return to Yemen have been rife since he was hurt in a bomb blast on June 3 in a mosque in his presidential palace. He flew to Saudi Arabia for treatment, leaving behind a country on the verge of civil war.

The president has not been seen in public since the explosion, which killed several people and wounded the prime minister, two deputy prime ministers and the speakers of both parliamentary chambers. It is not clear what role if any Saleh, under pressure to step down, sees for himself in ruling Yemen.
“He will appear within the next 48 hours despite our fear that the burns on his features and on different parts of his body will be an obstacle given that his appearance will not be as the media expects it,” said Ahmad al-Sufi, the president’s media secretary Sunday.

Yemen’s deputy information minister on Sunday ruled out any transfer of power in Yemen so long as wounded President Ali Abdullah Saleh remained hospitalized in Saudi Arabia.
“Our moral values do not allow us to discuss a transfer of power as the president lies on his sick bed” in Riyadh, where he was flown on June 4 for treatment after an explosion at his palace compound in Sanaa, Abdo al-Janadi told AFP.

Saleh, 69, who has faced nearly six months of protests against his 33-year-long autocratic rule.
In his absence, Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has come under pressure from the parliamentary opposition and the West to assume power, while street protesters demand he form an interim ruling council.
“The president is in good health. He is recovering but his discharge from hospital will be decided by his doctors,” said Janadi.

Hadi, who under the constitution replaces Saleh in his absence, “is working hard to normalize the situation in Yemen and to gather all parties in Yemen for dialogue,” said the deputy minister.
Meanwhile Saleh’s powerful son Ahmad issued a statement Sunday in support of efforts spearheaded by the opposition and the acting president to find a solution to the political turmoil.

Ahmad, also the commander of the elite Republican Guard, has played a key role in protecting his father’s government in the face of four months of mass anti-government protests calling for the regime’s ouster.
Ahmad Sunday “expressed his support” for attempts led by Hadi and opposition leaders to “reach a solution to the current crisis.” The comments appeared to mark a turnabout for the president’s son, who has played the role of chief guarantor of his family’s grip on power since his father left for Saudi Arabia.

But he also voiced support for “constitutional legitimacy,” terms often used by Saleh backers to justify his refusal to leave power, according to a statement on a Defense Ministry website.
Officials said that the son has come under intense pressure from neighboring Saudi Arabia and the U.S. to pull back his forces from the streets and pave the way for a transfer of power. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Yemen’s opposition welcomed Ahmad Saleh’s remarks, but said they must translate into action on the ground.
“The president’s son is taking an advanced step but still it is only on paper,” said activist Abdullah Oubal. “What is more important is to implement it.”
Hundreds of thousands of protesters rallied across Yemen Sunday to demand that Ahmad and his brother Khaled, who also commands a military unit, as well as other senior members of the regime leave the country.

In capital Sanaa, and other cities including Ibb and Taiz, protesters chanted slogans calling for Saleh to step down and his family to depart. Some demonstrators shouted: “Saleh’s orphans have to leave the country.” Yemen’s political crisis began in February with protests by largely peaceful crowds calling for Saleh’s ouster after nearly 33 years in power. A crackdown has killed at least 167 people, according to Human Rights Watch.
Yemen has been rocked by months of protests against Saleh’s three decades of rule. Before that he was grappling with a rebellion in the north, separatist violence in the south and a resurgent wing of Al-Qaeda.
Sufi said Saleh was in good health and continued to direct Yemeni affairs from abroad.

Underscoring the chaos in the country, especially in the south, an air raid on Saturday killed six militants on the outskirts of a village at the entrance to the volatile Abyan province.
A local official in Abyan told Reuters three soldiers were killed on Sunday in clashes with jihadist militants who took control of the province’s capital Zinjibar in May.
Earlier, authorities detained the head of a prison and his deputy for questioning over the escape of 63 Al-Qaeda-affiliated inmates in the southern port city of Al-Mukalla this week. The jailbreak stoked fears militants are exploiting the unrest to gain a foothold in the impoverished state, from which they could launch attacks in the region and beyond.

Saleh’s opponents say he is deliberately letting militants tighten their grip in the country to prove that only he stands in the way of an Islamist takeover.
Seven militants and two soldiers were killed on Sunday in clashes after an attack on an army base in south Yemen’s Zinjibar, a stronghold of Al-Qaeda, local officials and the military said.
The brigade has been attacked repeatedly since armed militants calling themselves “Partisans of Shariah” (Islamic Law) seized control of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, on May 29.
Yemen’s air force launched raids against the headquarters of the regional administration and military sites that are in the hands of Islamist insurgents, the same source said, adding there were “casualties in the ranks of the enemy.”

A local official said six gunmen were killed.
In Loder and Mudia, two Abyan towns, meanwhile, the Shariah group circulated leaflets warning traders to comply with Islamic law which forbids usury and not to sell “immoral” videos or magazines, in a tract obtained by AFP.
Opponents accuse Saleh’s government of exaggerating a jihadist threat to ease Western pressure on his 33-year rule.