Saleh's son takes charge in Yemen

Ahmed Ali Saleh controls major military forces in Yemen Sanaa - Arabstoday Yemen's president, out of the country recuperating from wounds from a rocket attack, still has a powerful hand on the ground at home: his son. Ahmad Ali Saleh commands Yemen's most highly trained troops

, has them deployed in the streets of the capital and seems determined to preserve his father's rule against enormous pressure at home and abroad.
The grip of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's son — and his nephews, who also command major military units — locks Yemen into a standoff between his forces and the opposition that, if it drags on, will almost inevitably collapse back into new violence.
It also appears to be a major obstacle in US-backed efforts to negotiate an end to the crisis while the president is away.
The 42-year-old Ahmad is operating from the presidential palace and his father's main office in a military compound in the capital of Sana'a, relegating Vice-President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi — nominally the acting president — to work from his home or his office in the Defence Ministry, several ruling party and government officials said.
The younger Saleh and his cousins have also defied pressure from the vice-president to withdraw their troops from the streets of Sana'a as part of a fragile cease-fire with opposition tribesmen.
In fact, since the truce began a week ago, Ahmad has brought more tanks and troops to positions in the capital's Hassaba district near the home of the tribesmen's leader, Shaikh Sadeq Al Ahmar, a high-ranking military officer said.
"The president's son is following a policy of escalation, as if to say he is the legitimate heir of his father," the officer said. He and other officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation and for fear of retaliation from the president's allies.
That could threaten US efforts to work out a stable transition from Saleh's rule during his absence.
The ceasefire will likely not last long if the opposition feels Saleh's regime is holding out, and new violence would throw the country into deeper chaos. The United States is concerned that Al Qaida militants in Yemen — who make up the terror network's most active branch — are already gaining power in remote parts of the mountainous country.
President Saleh was evacuated to Saudi Arabia last weekend for treatment after he was wounded in a rocket strike on his palace.
The US ambassador to Sanaa has met twice with Ahmad — once in the company of the vice-president and once alone — since the father's evacuation to press the need to calm the situation.
 

Gulfnews.com