Slate: Yemen’s Embattled Leader Leaves for U.S.
Hours later, Yemen’s air force mutinies against their commander, President Saleh’s half brother.
By Abby Ohlheiser
Updated Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, at 10:42 AM ET
Photograph by Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images.
A month before the country is supposed to hold a presidential election and transfer power to a new leader, Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh has departed for for the United States in order to receive medical treatment, effectively ending his 33-year rule.
The United States approved Saleh’s visit Sunday, and almost immediately began fending off suggestions that the visit has a political motive, stressing Saleh’s visit will last a “limited time,” and that he’ll return to Yemen after his treatment is finished. The Christian Science Monitor explains that if the United States is seen as harboring the leader—a longtime American ally—the country’s security missions in the region would be jeopardized.
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