SANAA, Yemen -- Thousands of Yemenis protested Thursday in mostly peaceful demonstrations calling on President Ali Abdullah Saleh(right photo) to step down in 2013.In Sanaa, the capital, about 10,000 people gathered at the university with another 6,000 involved in other demonstrations, The New York Times reported. Nasser Arabyee, a Yemeni journalist, told the newspaper a demonstration backing the president attracted far fewer people.
- Like this week's mass protests in Egypt, the Yemeni demonstrations appear to have been inspired by the ones in Tunisia that led to the ouster of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. There were smaller demonstrations earlier in the week in Yemen.
- Saleh has been in power for nearly 32 years. While most protesters did not demand his immediate removal, they asked that he stand down when his current term ends in two years, the Times said.
- "We gather today to demand the departure of President Saleh and his corrupt government," said Abdulmalik al-Qasuss, a member of Parliament from the opposition al-Islah Party.
- Opposition leaders say Yemenis are angry about corruption, a decline in the currency and a recent constitutional amendment that would allow a president to remain in office for life, the Financial Times reported. Anti-government groups also were outraged when a prominent female human rights activist was arrested during the weekend but she has since been released. There were no immediate reports of arrests on Thursday.
- Some of the protesters carried signs reading, "Elections are illegal and unconstitutional," and "The time has come for change," the Yemen Post reported.
Yemen is, at the moment, critical to the United States because it has become a base for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Yemeni legislator during a visit earlier this month that the United States wants an "inclusive government," the New York Times said.
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