Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in a statement on Friday he did not and would not leave the country, Jordanian Al-Sabeel newspaper reported.
The statement was published on his Twitter and Facebook pages. “I am not the man who is looking for a house in Jeddah or Paris… My country is my home and no one can oblige me to leave it,” he said.
This is the first comment from Saleh after several media reports suggested that he was been offered a “safe exit” from Yemen.
On Thursday evening, Al-Arabia TV, which is close to Saudi Arabia, said that Saleh and his sons suggested a proposal, agreed with the Houthi militias, to solve the ongoing conflict. According to the proposal, the Houthis would leave Sanaa and Aden and would hand over the military equipment to the army and agree to attend negotiations under the auspices of the Gulf States.
The sources reported by Al-Arabia said that Saleh and his sons proposed that Abdul-Ghani Jamil, the governor of Sanaa should become prime minister and a ministerial council headed by Khalid Bahah should be established.
A member of the Houthi political bureau, Mohamed al-Bakhiti, however denied any relationship to his group with this proposal.
“We have no connection with this initiative,” Al-Bakhiti told Anadolu news agency. “It is solely for Saleh’s party. We have never proposed any initiative and our sole initiative is the return to dialogue.”
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