Yemen opposition to form anti-Saleh coalition

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Yemen’s opposition is to form a coalition to unite its various strands ahead of the return of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is hospitalised in Saudi Arabia, a spokesman said Wednesday. A preparatory committee on Tuesday night approved the creation of a “national coalition council,” Ahmed al-Sabri, the spokesman for the committee, told AFP. The aim is to bring together the Common Forum parliamentary opposition parties, the young protesters, the Southern Movement, which advocated southern secession but in May said it would support a federal system, northern Shiite rebels, civil society representatives and others, Sabri said. The preparatory committee would announce the national coalition council on August 1, he said. Its mission would be to relaunch protests against Saleh, who was wounded in an early June bomb attack on his Sanaa palace and has been hospitalised in Saudi Arabia for more than five weeks, he added. Deputy Information Minister Abdo al-Janadi said on Saturday that Saleh would return home “soon.” The council aims to end divisions among the various components of the opposition. “The leaders of the protests do not act in coordination,” one opposition member said on condition of anonymity, citing divisions between northern Shiite rebels and the Al-Islah Sunni opposition.