Yemen's President Promises Not to Run Again

Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh took a page out of Hosni Mubarak’s playbook today, promising protesters that he would not run for reelection when his term ends in 2013. He also promised that his oldest son Ahmed, the head of Yemen’s Republican Guard, wouldn’t try to replace him, and that he’d delay the election until better voter records could be compiled—both key opposition demands, the New York Times reports.

“No extensions, no inheritance, no resetting the clock,” Saleh said, in a legislative session that had been boycotted by the opposition. “I present these concessions in the interests of the country. The interests of the country come before our personal interests.” But perhaps take Saleh’s promise with a grain of salt; he made the same promise in 2005, only to change his mind a year later, and win a new seven-year term. He has been president for 32 years. (More Ali Abdullah Saleh stories.)