Saleh cancels his U.S. trip

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has cancelled a trip to the United States, a senior official said on Wednesday, after requests from his ruling party that he remain in Yemen until after presidential elections. Saleh announced he would visit the United States last month, hours after forces loyal to him killed protesters demanding he face trial for killings during an uprising aimed at ending his 33-year rule. He would enjoy immunity from prosecution under a deal crafted by his wealthier neighbors and backed by Washington - which long backed Saleh as a pillar of its “counter-terrorism” strategy - aimed at averting civil war by easing him from power. “The idea of President Saleh’s visit to America is now unlikely,” Abdu al-Janadi, who is a senior figure in Saleh’s political party and Yemen’s deputy information minister, told reporters on Wednesday. Saleh is set to resign formally after the February polls in accordance with a Gulf-sponsored power transition plan. Al-Janadi told reporters on Wednesday that Saleh decided to cancel his trip after leading members of his General People’s Congress party “pressured him not to travel... because the elections could not take place without him.” “This is what made the president decide not to leave,” said Janadi, adding that there was “no truth to the news that there is a dispute between Washington and Sanaa over the president's trip.” A senior U.S. official said last week that Saleh’s office had informed the U.S. embassy in Sana’a that the president wanted to go to the United States to seek “specialized medical treatment.” At the time, White House deputy spokesman Josh Earnest said that U.S. officials were still considering Saleh’s request and no decision had been made, despite news reports to the contrary. The veteran Yemeni leader suffered severe burns in a June 4 bomb attack as he prayed at a mosque in his palace compound in Sanaa, and was admitted to a Saudi hospital for treatment. Janadi said on Wednesday that Saleh “was in good health.” The Gulf Cooperation Council initiative, signed by Saleh in November after more than 10 months of mass anti-government protests, forced Saleh to hand power to his deputy, Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi. The United States has said it is considering giving Saleh a visa for medical treatment, a decision critics of the U.S. administration’s Yemen policy have said lends the impression that Washington is sheltering Saleh. Washington and oil giant Saudi Arabia fear uncertainty over Saleh’s fate could push the country into chaos and embolden Yemen’s al-Qaeda wing, which has plotted attacks abroad. Meanwhile, Armed Islamists on Wednesday attacked a hotel in Aden that they suspected of hosting prostitutes and set it on fire, causing the death of two who tried to escape from windows, Yemeni police said. The gunmen opened fire on workers at the Layali Dubai (Dubai Nights) hotel, in the Sanafir neighborhood in the southern city, “before they set the hotel on fire, causing the death of two and injuring 15 guests,” a police official told AFP. Witnesses said many guests fell as they used ropes to escape from upper floors of the five-storey hotel, which more than 10 gunmen had set on fire. A medic at Jomhuriya hospital said 13 people suffering broken bones were admitted. Qaeda linked militants are active in southern Yemen, where lawless regions have became safe havens for the the local branch of the jihadist network.