SANAA, Yemen, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The Yemeni president called on Qatari officials to put pressure on Arab broadcaster al-Jazeera for what he described as inciting unrest in his country.
Thousands of demonstrators marched on Sanaa, calling on Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down after 32 years in office.
Saleh contacted Qatari officials to complain the broadcaster, which has headquarters in Doha, was exaggerating the situation in Yemen, the official Saba news agency reported.
"What the channel is doing only serves the Zionist (Israeli) entity and terrorist groups such as al-Qaida as well as the enemies of the Arab seeking to ignite dissent and threatening the future of the next generations," he was quoted as saying.
Egyptian and Yemeni protesters drew inspiration from unrest in Tunisia that brought an end to the regime of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali after more than 20 years in office. Yemen's interior minister told al-Jazeera on Thursday, however, that the country wasn't on the brink of a revolution.
Saleh in 2006 was elected to another seven-year term as the country's president.
Opposition leaders say Yemenis are angry about corruption, a decline in currency values and a recent constitutional amendment that would allow a president to remain in office for life.
