Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh traveled on Sunday to the United States for medical treatment.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh traveled on Sunday to the United States for medical treatment.

After after a short stopover in neighboring Oman, Saleh boarded a transatlantic flight to the US, whose officials maintained his stay in the country would be temporary.

"As we have indicated, the sole purpose of this travel is for medical treatment and we expect that he will stay for a limited time that corresponds to the duration of this treatment," the US state department said in a statement on Sunday.

Before he left Sanaa airport aboard a private Saudi plane on Sunday evening, Saleh was quoted by the state news agency Saba as telling a meeting with party officials: “God willing, I will leave for treatment in the United States and I will return to Sanaa as head of the General People's Congress party”.
"I ask for forgiveness from all my people, men and women, for any shortcomings during my 33-year-long rule," he also said, according to SABA.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Yemenis staged protests on Sunday against a law granting immunity for Saleh, from prosecution over a deadly crackdown on dissent.

The protesters carried banners during Sunday's rallies in Sanaa calling on parliament members to reverse their decision.
"It is our duty... to execute the butcher," chanted the protesters gathered in Change Square, the center of the democracy movement that has been calling for Saleh's removal since January last year.

The demonstrators tried to march to the US embassy but were stopped by Yemeni security forces.