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Yemen appears headed for a civil war as the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh is refusing to give in to opposition demands to step down immediately, even as opposition leaders argue over who is in charge and what they want, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The turmoil has not prevented the United States from providing tens of millions of dollars in counter-terrorism support to the government of the embattled Yemeni president who is part of the "war against terrorism" against al-Qaida, even as he has shown a willingness to talk with the terror group.
Saleh now has rejected the most recent five-point plan of the Joint Meeting Parties, or JMP, which is a coalition of opposition groups. The plan has the backing of the country's important clerics, and calls for constitutional and electoral reforms and for Saleh to step down within a year.
Saleh has said that he intends to stay in office until his term ends in 2013. Last year, he attempted to amend the constitution to allow him to be president for life.
But most of the anti-government protesters who continue to demonstrate daily – sometimes in violent clashes with government security forces – reject the JMP plan and want Saleh to step down now.
The intractability on both sides is raising the threat of civil war in the country.
"If (Saleh) remains in power and attempts to thwart reforms, chaos and fragmentation of the country are likely guaranteed," said Michael Horton, senior analyst for Arabian Affairs with the Washington-based think tank Jamestown Foundation.
"Even before the outbreak of anti-government protests," he said, "the Yemeni armed forces were hard pressed to maintain true operational control over even a majority of the country."
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