Only 164 MPs in a 301-seat parliament approved decision
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Lawmakers on Wednesday approved a state of emergency declared by Yemen's embattled President Ali Abdallah Saleh who faces mounting demands for his ouster, an AFP correspondent in parliament said.
In total, 163 MPs out of the 164 who attended a special parliamentary session voted for the measure, announced by the president last Friday, hours after regime loyalists in Sanaa gunned down 52 protesters near the university.
All members of the parliamentary opposition, independent MPs and members of Saleh's own General People's Congress who have resigned boycotted the session of Yemen's 301-seat parliament.
On Tuesday, an offer from Saleh to quit by January, 20 months earlier than planned, failed to appease the anti-regime opposition which has been growing over the past two months.
Saleh, who previously said he would stay in office until his term runs out in September 2013 but not run again, has offered to quit by January after a parliamentary poll, according to a senior official.
His regime has been hit by a wave of defections in the ranks of the military, among influential tribal chiefs, Muslim clerics and senior diplomats as well as within Saleh's party, especially since Friday's bloodbath in Sanaa.
Saleh warns of civil war
Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for 32 years, warned on Tuesday of civil war. He also called for a dialogue with the leaders of the youth movements leading the protests at a central Sanaa square that has become the movement's epicenter.
His warning of a civil war underscored his determination to cling to power and raised fears that Yemen could be pushed into even greater instability.
In a potentially explosive split, rival factions of the military have deployed tanks in the capital Sanaa - with units commanded by Saleh's son protecting the president's palace, and units loyal to a top dissident commander protecting the protesters.
The defection on Monday of that commander, Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a powerful regime insider who commands the army's powerful 1st Armored Division, has been seen by many as a major turning point toward a potentially rapid end for Saleh's nearly 32-year rule.
Clashes broke out late Monday between Saleh's Republican Guard and dissident army units in the far eastern corner of the country. On Tuesday, Republican Guard tanks surrounded a key air base in the western Red Sea coastal city of Hodeida after its commander - Col. Ahmed al-Sanhani, a member of Saleh's own clan - announced he was joining the opposition.
The turmoil raised alarm in Washington, which has heavily backed Saleh to wage a campaign against a major Yemen-based al-Qaida wing that plotted attacks in the United States.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on a trip to Russia, said Tuesday that "instability and diversion of attention" from dealing with al-Qaida is a "primary concern about the situation." He refused to weigh in on whether Saleh should step down.
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