SANAA, Yemen—Yemen’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed on Wednesday he would not step down or allow his impoverished nation to become a “failed state” even as urban combat between government troops and armed tribesmen engulfed parts of the capital.
Saleh’s defiance to yield power despite local and international pressures came as the State Department ordered US diplomats to leave Yemen as security conditions deteriorate with the country’s embattled leader refusing to step down. It is also urging private Americans to leave.
Wednesday’s decision to tell most nonessential personnel and the families of American staff at the US Embassy in Sanaa to leave is sign of Washington’s increasing concern about the situation in Yemen, where street battles between supporters and opponents of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh raged for a third day.
Speaking in London earlier on Wednesday, President Barack Obama called on Saleh to “move immediately” to transfer power. Saleh has balked three times at following through on commitments to step down.
Both sides raised the specter of civil war as the three-day death toll rose to at least 63. The latest violence comes just days after a failed Arab mediation effort to end the three-month uprising and ease Saleh from power.
Saleh’s statement on Wednesday—read by spokesman Ahmed al-Soufi in a meeting with tribal allies—ruled out a voluntary departure and blasted US-backed efforts to negotiate his exit after 32 years of authoritarian rule.
“I will not leave power and I will not leave Yemen,” the statement said. “I don’t take orders from outside.”
Saleh also threatened that his ouster could turn Yemen into a haven for al-Qaeda—directly touching on US fears that chaos in Yemen could open room for more terrorist footholds. The Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda is linked to the attempted Christmas Day 2009 bombing of an airline over Detroit and explosives found in parcels intercepted last year in Dubai and Britain.
“Yemen will not be a failed state. It will not turn to al-Qaeda refuge,” the statement said. Saleh also said he would work to prevent the recent violence from “dragging the country into a civil war.”
US President Barack Obama has called on Saleh to transfer power—a change from an administration that once considered the Yemeni ruler a necessary ally against terrorism.
Also on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate end to the fighting, expressing concern that clashes “might further destabilize the situation,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said at the UN headquarters in New York.
The clashes broke out on Monday after Saleh’s troops tried to storm the compound of Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, the head of Yemen’s largest tribe, the Hashid. Hundreds of tribal fighters rushed to the capital’s northern Hassaba neighborhood, where clashes erupted with government forces.
