Saleh arrives in US for medical treatment

WASHINGTON - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived in the United States Saturday for medical treatment, US State Department spokesman Noel Clay said.

Saleh will stay in the United States "for the time that corresponds to his treatment," Clay said, without giving any further details.

The outgoing Yemeni leader flew to the United States, after a brief refueling stop at Stansted Airport outside London earlier Saturday, from a six-day stopover in Oman.

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrives at a rally of his supporters in Sanaa in this May 6, 2011 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

Saleh left Yemen last Sunday after the Yemeni parliament approved a law which granted him complete immunity from prosecution in line with a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal.

On Wednesday, Washington entitled Saleh to diplomatic immunity and granted him a limited visa to seek medical treatment in the United States.

Under a power transfer deal signed by Saleh and the opposition in November 2011 to end the 11 months of protests demanding his ouster, Saleh should give up power in return for immunity from prosecution.

Saleh was seriously wounded in a bomb attack on his presidential palace on June 3, 2011, which forced him along with 87 other officials to be hospitalized for months in neighboring Saudi Arabia.