Following 10 months of popular protests calling for his resignation, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed an agreement to transfer power to his vice president. But with five protesters killed in a demonstration a day later — and given Saleh’s recent return to Yemen — will the agreement hold up? What are the prospects for a transition to democracy?

Laura Kasinof, a New York Times correspondent who has reported from Sanaa since 2009, reflected on Yemen’s uprising and discussed the elections now scheduled for February 2012. The conversation also explored Yemen’s opposition movements, U.S. counterterrorism policy in Yemen, and the Saudi role in this Arabian Peninsula state.