SANAA – A United Nations envoy has said a deal on transferring power in Yemen has been reached and details on signing the accord are being worked out. Three previous such deals however had appeared to be finalised before President Ali Abdullah Saleh backed out at the last minute.
A Yemeni official said yesterday that senior politicians in Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) were strongly opposed to signing the accord, which was a notable obstacle.
“We have an agreement, we’re working out the signing,” UN envoy Jamal Benomar, who has been shuttling between the two sides, told reporters in Sanaa.
A western diplomat confirmed an agreement on handing over power had been reached but said Mr Benomar was still discussing details related to its signing. He was expected to meet Mr Saleh later yesterday to hammer out details – a stage at which deals have foundered previously.
Under a plan crafted by Yemen’s six Gulf Arab neighbours, Mr Saleh would transfer his powers to his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, ahead of an early election.
However, Mr Saleh has repeatedly failed to sign the deal, which aims to end months of protests that have paralysed the country and engendered chaos that has bolstered al-Qaeda militants next door to Saudi Arabia, the world’s number one oil exporter.
The Yemeni official, who asked to remain anonymous, said Mr Saleh was trying to reassure officials in his party to get them to drop opposition to the accord and to “convince them that the GCC [Gulf Co-operation Council] plan is the best way forward”.
The official also said renegade general Ali Mohsen, who broke away from the Yemeni army after protests began in February, and tribal leader Sadeq al-Ahmar – neither of whom is part of the accord – may try to obstruct it.
Officials from an alliance of opposition parties and a source in the GPC said on Monday that a deal had been reached and that it would be signed yesterday.
Under the accord, Mr Saleh would keep the title of president after handing all of his powers to Mr Hadi, who will form a new national unity government with the opposition and call an early presidential election within three months.
More than 10 months of protests aimed at ending Mr Saleh’s 33-year rule have rekindled conflicts with Islamist militants and separatists during the political deadlock, which has threatened anarchy.
The fears are shared by Mr Saleh’s erstwhile US backers, who made him a cornerstone of their campaign against al-Qaeda and have brokered negotiations on implementing the Gulf plan.
Yemeni tribesmen battling forces loyal to Mr Saleh in the Arhab region north of the capital said they attacked government positions yesterday and were shelled in return.
Activists in the southern city of Taiz, a hotbed of anti-Saleh protest and sporadic clashes between his forces and tribal militias, said a demonstrator was killed by mortar fire from troops loyal to Saleh.
Shipping sources and traders yesterday said Yemen was seeking extra fuel imports due to the shutdown of the largest fuel refinery, in the southern city of Aden, after attacks on its main feed pipeline in October. – (Reuters)