Saleh, just step the buck down!

A US-backed deal for Yemen's authoritarian president to step down falls far short of the demands of protesters fighting regime supporters on the streets of Sanaa in clashes that have left five dead. The agreement ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule provides for only the shallowest of changes at the top of the regime, something the U.S. administration likely favored to preserve a fragile alliance against one of the world's most active al Qaeda branches based in Yemen. That's all well and good but here's the problem: the plan drawn up by Yemen's oil-rich Gulf neighbors does not directly change the system he put in place over three decades to serve his interests. It gives an opportunity for regime survival, and leaves much more of the old regime intact than after the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya - something that will almost certainly translate into continued unrest. Saleh needs to be tried for charges of corruption and for the killing of protesters during the uprising.