Yemen’s president Ali Abdullah Saleh left hospital in Saudi Arabia yesterday, government and medical sources said, two months after suffering severe injuries in an assassination attempt at his palace in Sanaa.
The sources said Mr Saleh was walking and in “good condition” as he headed to a government residence in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
It is not yet clear when the 69-year-old leader will return to Yemen, which has been paralysed by over six months of protests against his 33-year rule.
Mr Saleh’s impoverished Arabian Peninsula country has been in a political stalemate since he was flown out in June after a bomb blast inside the mosque at his presidential compound.
As efforts to negotiate his resignation stalled after the attack, clashes with Islamist militants in the south and pro-opposition tribesmen around Sanaa have increased. This has revived the risk of civil war in the country, which had pulled back from the brink after fierce fighting in Sanaa three months ago.
Neighbouring Saudi Arabia and the US, both targets of foiled attacks by al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing, have pushed for the signing of a Gulf-brokered power transition plan. Mr Saleh, who has said he will return to rule Yemen since his attack, has backed out of signing the deal three times.
A period of relative calm during Mr Saleh’s convalescence has been threatened by rising clashes around Sanaa and in the protest hotbed of Taiz, about 200km (120 miles) to the south.
On Saturday, forces loyal to Mr Saleh traded fire with gunmen loyal to the opposition figure Sadeq al-Ahmar, head of the tribal Hashed confederation. Republican Guard forces clashed with pro-opposition gunmen about 40km outside Sanaa.
In Taiz, forces loyal to Mr Saleh opened fire on anti-government protests, killing one and injuring three others on Saturday.
In a sign that stalled efforts at a transition deal may be revived, Yemen’s state news agency quoted foreign minister Abubakr al-Qirbi as saying a future mediated solution would be based on the former Gulf plan, and warned of the threat of civil war without a political dialogue.
“This will lead to what was feared by many, a civil war, because society is divided in two,” he told the Yemeni television station al-Saeeda yesterday.