The president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, refused yesterday at the last moment to sign the agreement to deliver the power that had sponsored the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), United States and the EU. Saleh surprised the GCC Secretary General, Al Zayani, with the news. Intense diplomatic efforts failed to persuade him to change his mind.
Sanaa Al Zayani left in the air leaving the immediate future of Yemen. Saleh, who only accepted the initiative of the Gulf to pressure the U.S. and the EU, has not stopped looking for excuses to blurt the plan finalized last week. According to the draft, the Yemeni president agreed to resign within a month in exchange for immunity for himself and his family, and two months after elections were held.
But yesterday he met with several hundred senior government officials, parliament and the ruling party, which convinced him that he should not budge. So he told Al Zayani when he was in the afternoon. In diplomatic circles panicked. There is a belief that if Saleh, who has 32 years in front of Yemen does not accept the transfer of power, the country is headed toward civil war.
Three months ago a popular movement answering his legitimacy in the street and most of the ruling elite has come to the conclusion that the only peaceful solution to the crisis is that the president leaves office. But neither the efforts of the GCC secretary general, who then met Saleh late, nor those of U.S.
diplomats and the EU, helped to persuade the Yemeni president. Al Zayani left Sana'a last night without his signature, which renders the planned ceremony today in Riyadh. Even if a representative of Saleh signed the agreement with the opposition, the document would have the same symbolic value or legal.
"The president must sign. Is what gives substance and credibility to the agreement. It is the party that will tell you to stop the power, a commitment that he has taken personally," he told this newspaper a European diplomatic source. Some observers believe has lost a lot of time waiting a week to ratify it.
Meanwhile, in Aden, the capital of the south, two policemen were killed and two wounded when gunmen attacked a police station in the suburb of Mansura. Soon after, the security forces evicted the camp installed anti-Saleh for weeks in the same neighborhood where the agents suspected that the attackers were hiding.
Between two and four protesters, the sources said, were killed and fifty wounded. Area residents told that tanks and armored vehicles patrolled the streets. 
Sanaa Al Zayani left in the air leaving the immediate future of Yemen. Saleh, who only accepted the initiative of the Gulf to pressure the U.S. and the EU, has not stopped looking for excuses to blurt the plan finalized last week. According to the draft, the Yemeni president agreed to resign within a month in exchange for immunity for himself and his family, and two months after elections were held.
But yesterday he met with several hundred senior government officials, parliament and the ruling party, which convinced him that he should not budge. So he told Al Zayani when he was in the afternoon. In diplomatic circles panicked. There is a belief that if Saleh, who has 32 years in front of Yemen does not accept the transfer of power, the country is headed toward civil war.
Three months ago a popular movement answering his legitimacy in the street and most of the ruling elite has come to the conclusion that the only peaceful solution to the crisis is that the president leaves office. But neither the efforts of the GCC secretary general, who then met Saleh late, nor those of U.S.
diplomats and the EU, helped to persuade the Yemeni president. Al Zayani left Sana'a last night without his signature, which renders the planned ceremony today in Riyadh. Even if a representative of Saleh signed the agreement with the opposition, the document would have the same symbolic value or legal.
"The president must sign. Is what gives substance and credibility to the agreement. It is the party that will tell you to stop the power, a commitment that he has taken personally," he told this newspaper a European diplomatic source. Some observers believe has lost a lot of time waiting a week to ratify it.
Meanwhile, in Aden, the capital of the south, two policemen were killed and two wounded when gunmen attacked a police station in the suburb of Mansura. Soon after, the security forces evicted the camp installed anti-Saleh for weeks in the same neighborhood where the agents suspected that the attackers were hiding.
Between two and four protesters, the sources said, were killed and fifty wounded. Area residents told that tanks and armored vehicles patrolled the streets.
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- Yemen's president: On his way at last? (28/04/2011)
- Pictures of the Day: Yemen and Elsewhere (26/04/2011)
- Yemen's Saleh Wants Immunity Before Stepping Down (25/04/2011)
- Yemen: Gunmen Kill 10 Protesters (28/04/2011)
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