The UN’s Yemen envoy said on Tuesday a Gulf sponsored power-transfer deal aimed at ending months of political deadlock has been approved both by the opposition and by President Ali Abdullah Saleh. “All the parties have agreed to implement the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative,” Jamal Benomar told reporters in Yemen’s capital Sanaa. “We are now discussing the practical arrangements related to the actual signing ceremony,” Benomar said adding that there would be a media conference later in the day where further details would be released.
Benomar, who arrived in Sanaa on November 10, has been working tirelessly to secure an agreement on the Gulf transition plan that calls for Saleh to hand power over to his deputy, Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, in return for immunity from prosecution for him and his family.
Saleh’s continued refusal to sign the initiative has triggered months of political deadlock that has left the government in a state of chaos and the economy in shambles. The political crisis has also exacerbated tensions on Yemen’s streets where tens of thousands of anti-government protesters have faced a brutal 10-month government crackdown that has left hundreds dead and thousands wounded. Benomar did not say when or where the signing ceremony would take place.