Saleh tells Yemenis to stand in solidarity

SANAA, Yemen, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- The Yemeni people are called on to back the new political leadership in a show of national solidarity, the country's former president said Monday.

Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh handed power to Abed Rabu Mansour Hadi during a swearing-in ceremony at the presidential palace in Sanaa.

"We call on all the sons of the nation to stand together alongside the political leadership to achieve the national solidarity to confront terrorism that targets Yemen's security and stability," Saleh was quoted by the official Saba news agency as saying.

Hadi won a one-man contest for president last week. Opposition groups in the north and south of the country call for a boycott of the election, though officials in Sanaa said some voting places ran out of paper ballots due to high turnout.

Saleh agreed to the terms of an initiative brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council that paved the way to Hadi's presidency in exchange for immunity. Yemen was caught up in the so-called Arab Spring last year and the United Nations said anyone responsible for bloodshed in Yemen, including Saleh, should be brought to justice.

Hadi said during Monday's ceremony that his country faced difficult and complex challenges ahead.

"The Yemeni people who turned out in their millions for the early presidential elections have sent a clear message of their desire for security, stability and change for the better," he was quoted as saying.