A delegation from Yemen’s ruling party headed Thursday to Riyadh to seek permission from convalescing President Ali Abdullah Saleh for his deputy to negotiate a power-transfer plan with the opposition, a party official said. “The delegation is heading to Riyadh to meet the president and ask him to authorise his deputy to start the dialogue” with the opposition, which is demanding Saleh’s ouster, the official told AFP requesting anonymity. The decision was taken during a meeting of the politburo of the General People’s Congress on Wednesday, which discussed a plan proposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council aiming to end months of anti-regime protests through easing Saleh out of office before his term ends in 2013. “It has been agreed that Saleh would issue a decree vesting his deputy with constitutional powers to hold talks with the parties that have signed the Gulf initiative and agree on a timetable and mechanism to implement it,” GPC’s Assistant Secretary General Sultan Barakani told AFP earlier. He said that the implementation of the plan proposed by the GCC “would lead to holding early presidential elections that would guarantee a peaceful and democratic transition of power.” The plan drawn up by the six Gulf states in coordination with the European Union and the United States called for the immediate formation of a government of national unity with Saleh stepping down a month later in return for a promise of immunity, but the president has repeatedly refused to sign it. The ruling party mulled over the past two days a roadmap drawn by UN envoy Jamal Benomar to implement the Gulf initiative with some amendments to its timetable. Opposition sources said that the UN plan called for the formal transfer of power to Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi by Saleh, who has been in Saudi Arabia since early June being treated for blast wounds sustained in a bomb attack on his palace.
