Saleh quits Yemen presidency

Saturday, 23 April 2011

By MUNA KHAN
Al Arabiya with Agencies

President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen has agreed to a proposal by Gulf Arab mediators to step down within 30 days, and hand power to his deputy in exchange for immunity from prosecution, Yemen’s state TV said on Saturday evening.

His imminent departure from office made Mr. Saleh the third key Arab leader to step down in the face of social and political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. The other leaders are Presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia. Mr. Mubarak is under detention at a military hospital in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh; Mr. Ben Ali is reported to be gravely ill in Saudi Arabia.

There were unconfirmed reports early Sunday morning that members of President Saleh’s immediate family have left Sana’a for the United Arab Emirates. It is not inconceivable that an informal arrangement has been made to ensure safe passage for the president’s family to nearby countries.

The protest movement demanding Mr. Saleh’s immediate departure from office said Saturday it also has agreed to the mediators’ proposal but with reservations. It objects to an article that gives parliament the right to reject the president’s resignation.

Members of the 68-year-old Mr. Saleh’s party, the General People’s Congress, dominate the parliament. Mr. Saleh, who has been in power for the last 32 years, steadfastly refused to resign from the presidency in the face of more than two months of massive street protests against his authoritarian rule.

State TV said Saturday evening that Yemen’s foreign minister delivered the government’s acceptance to mediators from the Gulf Cooperation Council earlier on Saturday.

Hours after the government officially accepted the GCC new proposal to tackle the Yemeni crisis, the Joint Meeting Parties, representing the opposition coalition, said it had accepted the Gulf initiative too. 
The coalition held a meeting to discuss the proposal; it backed down from an earlier insistence that Opposition leaders lead a new government.

Instead, a spokesman for the coalition, Muhammad Qahtan, said: “We agreed that the General People’s Congress, the governing party, forms the national unity government from the government, the opposition and other political forces on condition the protests continue on the streets.” Sultan Al-Atwani, Secretary General of the Nasserite Unionist People’s Organization, said that the proposal was to be welcomed in general, but he added that his group needed further clarification regarding the GCC-brokered deal. 


President Saleh seemed predictably bitter in accepting the deal. He warned on Saturday of civil war unless the current crisis was tackled. In a speech to deans, commanders and students of Yemen’s military and security colleges, Mr. Saleh accused his foes of receiving funds from unnamed countries “to incite chaos and oust the regime.”

“The Joint Meeting Parties receive dirty money to topple the government, and those who joined them from the ruling party were agents for the opposition,” Mr. Saleh said. “We are very interested in preventing bloodshed because the Yemeni blood is very precious and the opposition can’t drag us to killing each other. Civil war will not only affect Yemen, but also the whole region and the international security. Change is necessary but through peaceful means and without destruction or sabotage. The demands of the youths, who are on the streets, are the people’s demands and I truly support these demands and suggest that the youth form their own political party.”

The Wall Street Journal broke the story of his resignation on Saturday evening. It quoted a presidential aide, Tariq Shami, as saying, “Though President Saleh has constitutional rights to stay in power, he is willing to leave office willingly.”

In the end, President Saleh had little choice but to yield to pressure from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two Gulf States most vigorously involved in diplomatic efforts concerning the Yemen crisis. Although Mr. Saleh remained defiant in speeches on Friday, vowing to complete his term until 2013, backdoor diplomacy by Gulf states—worried at the possible gains made by Al-Qaeda network in Yemen—was able to convince Mr. Saleh that he would be accorded a dignified exit, according to The Journal.

Analysts will now eagerly await the opposition’s reaction to this deal as various groups are divided on the controversial clause of the president and his aides receiving any form of immunity from prosecution. While some have agreed to President Saleh handing over power to the vice-president in 30 days and his son and nephew, who hold key positions in the military and national security, handing over their posts within 60 days, it is the youth movement that remains adamant in their stance, The Journal said.

“We the youth of revolution reject any proposal that does not hold Saleh accountable for the killing of more than 140 revolutionary protesters during the street demonstrations this year,” said a statement released by the students’ organizing committee.

Earlier in the day on Saturday, Yemenis boarded up their shops and businesses across the country in protest against the president’s rule.

According to a Reuters witness, up to 90 percent of shops, markets and schools were closed in the southern port city of Aden. There were few pedestrians in the streets and hardly any traffic.

Many businesses were also closed for the day in Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city and an epicenter of opposition to the 69-year-old-president, and Hodeida on the Red Sea.

Yemenis flooded the streets of Sana’a and Taiz on Friday in rival demonstrations for and against Mr. Saleh, who offered guarded approval to a Gulf Arab plan for a three-month transition of power.

The proposal of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) called for Mr. Saleh to hand power to his vice president, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, one month after signing an agreement.

He would appoint an opposition leader to lead an interim cabinet charged with preparing presidential elections two months later, a Yemeni official said on Friday.

The plan, presented on Thursday, also gives immunity from prosecution to Mr. Saleh, his family and aides—anathema to his foes, who would also have to end protests under the proposal.

“We stress that we will hold on to the constitutional legitimacy, in loyalty to our people, as we categorically reject the attempted coups on freedom, democracy, and political pluralism,” Mr. Saleh told regime supporters in Sana’a.

As on past Fridays, a huge rival rally by anti-regime protesters kept up the pressure for Mr. Saleh’s immediate departure on what they branded a “Last Chance Friday.”

A correspondent of Agence-France Presse said the gathering covered a four-kilometer stretch, in what appeared to be the largest anti-Saleh rally since protests erupted in late January.

Yemeni army and police were deployed in force to prevent clashes between the two camps.

Parliamentary opposition groups are still studying the GCC plan, but the spokesman of the Common Forum coalition said that “forming a national unity government while the president is still in office is not accepted.”

“The president’s departure is essential to any solution,” he told AFP.

Many protesters on the streets on Friday dismissed the proposal out of hand.

“Neighboring countries: no negotiations, no dialogue,” read posters carried by demonstrators.

Mr. Saleh has since January faced anti-regime protests calling for his ouster in which more than 130 people have been killed in clashes with security forces and rival demonstrators.

Meanwhile al-Qaeda militants and tribesmen gunned down 13 soldiers in separate attacks in the eastern Marib province.

Another soldier was shot dead by unknown gunmen in the restive southern province of Abyan.

Mr. Saleh’s long-time Gulf and Western allies, concerned that the chaos in Yemen will open more opportunities for ambitious al-Qaeda militants, are trying to broker an orderly transition to the president’s 32-year rule.

Source: al-Arabiya.
Link: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/04/23/146477.html.