Yemen's embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh has signed off on an agreement where he would step down after 30 days and hand power to his vice president in exchange for several conditions.

One of those condition is immunity for him and his family. The opposition seems willing to accept this but they draw the line at halting demonstrations.

The agreement was cobbled together by the Gulf Cooperation Council, with Saudi Arabia leading the way. The Saudis are afraid that the unrest in the country will allow al-Qaeda and its affiliates to run wild and carry out their stated desire to bring down the royal family.

There is chaos in the country nowm and as the NY Times reports, that won't change anytime soon:

Mr. Saleh has been an important ally of the United States in its efforts to stamp out Al Qaeda, which has an active branch in the country. The relationship became especially crucial to the United States after attempted terrorist attacks were linked to the Qaeda branch there. That included an attempt to bring down an airliner bound for the United States on Christmas Day 2009.

But in recent weeks, American officials began joining calls for Mr. Saleh to step down; they said the White House had determined that he would not make the changes necessary to bring stability to the country. American officials were also increasingly worried that the stalemate and continued violence there were allowing Qaeda members to become even more entrenched.

The State Department reacted somewhat cautiously Saturday. Acting Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said officials had seen news reports about President Saleh's apparent acceptance of an agreement with the opposition, which he said would be welcome. But he added that "The participation of all sides in this dialogue is urgently needed to reach a solution supported by the Yemeni people." He also specified that the nation's youth should be brought into the process.

Just as an aside, the last great revolutionary spirit to sweep a region was when communism fell in eastern Europe. Did George Bush #41 care if the "youth" was brought into the process of negotiating the communist's exit? If he had, half the capitols of eastern Europe would still be under communism. The youth are fine frontmen for the PR campaign run by adults. But the idea that they might stand in the way of a deal due to their naive view of the world is frightening.

Keep "the youth" out of it and get this tyrant out of there.