Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh backed his successor Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi and said that the fight against al-Qaeda should continue.

“I hand over the banner of revolution... to safe hands,” said Saleh, the fourth veteran Arab leader to fall in just over a year, standing beside Hadi.

Saleh urged friends and brothers to back efforts to rebuild the country after the destruction that was caused by the uprising that led to his ouster. Saleh spoke in Sana’a during the ceremony of handing in the power to his successor.

Yemen’s new president will serve for an interim two-year period as stipulated by a Gulf-brokered power transition plan signed by Saleh last November.








(Al Arabiya)