By Hammoud Mounassar
Opponents and supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, convalescing in Saudi Arabia, held rival rallies on Friday in Sanaa, six months into a crisis which has brought the impoverished country to its knees.
"No dialogue, no haggling, victory is near," chanted anti-Saleh protesters who gathered in Sittine Road, in a western district of the capital, for a day of "patience and strength," an AFP correspondent said.
"Resistance, resistance, no to despair," read their banners.

Organisers of the anti-Saleh protests which have rocked Yemen since late January have expressed concern that the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, expected to start on Monday, could hamper their movement.
Anti-regime protests also took place on Friday in several provinces, including Yemen's second largest city of Taez, in Ibb, Shabwa, Saada and Marib, witnesses said.

A smaller number of Saleh's loyalists gathered in a southern district of Sanaa for a Friday of "loyalty" to the veteran leader, hospitalised in Riyadh from bomb wounds he sustained in an attack on his palace compound on June 3.
"The people want Ali Abdullah Saleh," they chanted, waving portraits of the president and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.

At "Change Square," where anti-regime protesters have been camped since February, soldiers from an armoured division led by dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar dispersed a group of people who wanted the demonstrators' tents removed.

"It was a provocation by the regime's supporters," charged one protester.
The six-month confrontation between the regime and its opponents has claimed the lives of hundreds across the nation and pushed Yemen, already one of the world's poorest countries, to the edge.
"We are tired with the government which has not take up its responsibilities and the opposition which has not been able to finish off its revolution," Sanaa resident Saleh al-Zuhair told AFP.

A property contractor in Ibb, south of Sanaa, warned that "more and more people are losing their jobs."
The political crisis has cost Yemen $17 billion, unemployment has "doubled in various sectors," and 500 factories have closed, Deputy Information Minister Abdo al-Janadi told a news conference on Thursday.
Janadi warned that the economy of Yemen, which Saleh has ruled since 1978, could "totally collapse."
Yemeni security forces and government supporters have carried out bloody attacks on protesters, while opposition tribesmen have battled government forces and some military units have defected to the opposition.

But despite international and domestic pressure on Saleh to sign a Gulf-brokered exit deal that would see him step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution, the veteran leader has steadfastly refused to sign the initiative.
Divisions have also surfaced among opposition members after a group of protesters on July 16 announced the creation of a 17-member "presidential council" to run Yemen in the event of Saleh's departure.