Thousands of supporters of Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh and Shiite rebels took to the streets Friday to protest threatened UN sanctions against the ousted strongman and insurgent chiefs, according to Alarabiya.
Protesters, many brandishing machine guns, gathered in Tahrir Square in the capital Sanaa, chanting slogans hailing Saleh and condemning Washington for proposing the sanctions.
Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party called for the protests, warning that any sanctions would exacerbate the crisis in Yemen, which has been gripped by years of instability.
The UN Security Council was set to endorse the US-drafted proposal to slap a visa ban and assets freeze on Saleh and two of his allies, Shiite Houthi rebel commanders Abd al-Khaliq al-Huthi and Abdullah Yahya al-Hakim, diplomats in New York said on Tuesday.