SANA, Yemen — In another reverberation of the popular anger rocking the region, the longtime president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, announced concessions Wednesday that include suspending his campaign for constitutional changes that would allow him to remain president for life and pledging that his son would not seek to be his successor.
“No extension, no inheritance, no resetting the clock,” Saleh said Wednesday during a legislative session that was boycotted by the opposition. “I present these concessions in the interests of the country. The interests of the country come before our personal interests.”
He ordered the creation of a fund to employ university graduates and to extend social-security coverage, increased wages and lowered income taxes and offered to resume a political dialogue that collapsed in October over elections.
But it remained to be seen whether Saleh, whose current term ends in 2013, was simply trying to siphon vigor from anti-government protests planned for today.
By The New York Times
