Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has torpedoed a Gulf-brokered deal aimed at ending three months of deadly protests that would have seen him quit after 30 days, the opposition said on Sunday. Delegations from Saleh’s ruling party and the Common Forum opposition coalition had been expected to join Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers in Riyadh later on Sunday to sign the deal ahead of Saleh’s exit. “There is no longer an invitation.
The general secretary of the GCC left yesterday without the president’s signature, so the initiative has failed,” opposition official Mohammad al-Sabri told AFP. GCC chief Abdullatif al-Zayani left Sanaa on Saturday after failing to get Saleh to endorse the GCC-proposed deal. Zayani’s office announced in Riyadh that the signing ceremony has been cancelled, but that the GCC ministers’ meeting would go ahead anyway.
“Four sessions of talks were held to convince him (Saleh), and every time he came up with a new condition,” Sabri said. The GCC deal proposes the formation of an opposition-led government of national unity, Saleh transferring power to his vice president and an end to the deadly protests that have rocked the country since late January. Under the accord, the Yemeni strongman would submit his resignation to parliament on the 30th day after the deal, a day after parliament would have passed a law guaranteeing immunity from prosecution to Saleh and his aides.
A presidential election would then follow after 60 days. However, a defiant Saleh has publicly insisted on sticking to the constitution in any transfer of power, even though his ruling People’s Congress Party has said it accepts the GCC plan. Zayani had gone to Sanaa to formally invite Saleh and his opponents to sign the power transfer deal, state media had said ahead of an expected signing ceremony in Riyadh on Monday. But he left the Yemeni capital empty-handed after the president refused to sign the deal himself, instead assigning one of his advisers to do so on his behalf, sources close to both sides said.
