Yemenis agree to hold talks on transfer of power

June 14, 2011
By Ahmed Al-Haj, Associated Press

SANA, Yemen — Yemen's acting president agreed yesterday with opposition parties to begin discussions about how to transfer power from the country's embattled president, an opposition spokesman said.

The official, Abdullah Oubal, said the agreement provides for the opposition and President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ruling party to open a dialogue to find a way to ease Saleh out of office, in accordance with proposals put forward by Yemen's Gulf neighbors. Saleh has publicly accepted the proposals in the past, but has been evasive about implementing them.

The agreement may not end the country's political impasse or prevent renewed clashes between forces loyal to Saleh and armed tribesmen opposed to his rule. However, it suggests that the acting president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, is exercising his constitutional powers, despite the vast influence wielded by Saleh's inner circle and family.

The meeting was the first between an alliance of opposition parties and Hadi, who has been acting president since Saleh left for Saudi Arabia on June 5 for medical treatment from wounds he suffered in an attack on his compound in Sana, Yemen's capital.

A senior Yemeni official in the Saudi capital, where Saleh is hospitalized, said the president's condition was stable but not improving. The official spoke by telephone and on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Yesterday's meeting, thought to have been convened under Western pressure, took place at Hadi's Sana residence, which witnesses said was surrounded by members of the special forces, an elite outfit led by Saleh's son and onetime heir apparent, Ahmed.

Two top ruling party officials, Sultan al-Burkany and Ahmed Ben Daghr, joined Hadi on the government side for the negotiations, said opposition spokesman Oubal.

Tensions remain between forces loyal to Saleh and armed tribesmen led by Sadeq al-Ahmar, a onetime ally of the president who switched sides in March to join protesters staging mass demonstrations to demand the president’s ouster.

The two sides fought fierce street battles in Sana in late May and early this month, causing extensive damage to several neighborhoods. Officials close to Ahmar said 100 of their fighters were killed and another 325 wounded in the fighting between May 23 and June 4.

In Sana, news of the agreement between Hadi and the opposition appeared to have no immediate impact. Witnesses said troops loyal to and opposed to Saleh have been significantly reinforced, with more checkpoints and plainclothes gunmen visible on the streets.

Beside the armed tribesmen, troops from the elite First Armored Division, whose commander mutinied and joined the protesters in March, have been squaring up in the capital against the presidential guard and the special forces, both under the command of the president's son.

Airstrikes, meanwhile, targeted Muslim militants in control of a southern Yemeni town, killing three suspected extremists yesterday, military and medical officials said.

Jordan

Stone-throwing youths in a poor southern town exploded in anger at rough handling by police during a visit by King Abdullah II yesterday, a symptom of simmering popular frustrations in Jordan even as the monarch moves toward a more democratic system.

The spurt of violence, rare in Jordan while other Arab states were rocked by turmoil in recent months, pointed up Jordanians' resentment of heavy-handed control by the Hashemite kingdom's security forces.

Along with steps toward political liberalization, “we have the task to dismantle the security's grip in order to have democracy and rule of law,’’ said a democracy activist, Laila Hamarneh.

The trouble in Tafila came a day after Abdullah went on national television to announce a major concession to months of peaceful protests, accepting the idea of elected governments, and replacing Cabinets appointed by him.

Yesterday, he traveled to Tafila on what palace officials described as a fact-finding inspection of infrastructure projects and to hear people's grievances. But Tafila residents said their mayor had barred young unemployed people from taking part in a town meeting with the king.

When some 60 youths tried to line sidewalks as the king's motorcade approached, to hand-deliver petitions and tell him about their difficulty in finding jobs, antiriot police pushed them away savagely, and the crowd responded with stones, said a Tafila shopkeeper, Yazan Abu Yousef, 26.

Government officials said the violence was not directed at the king and he was unharmed, but 26 police officers were injured. There was no word on injuries among local residents.

They said Abdullah, in his Tafila meetings, pledged new funding for local development projects and other help for people in the town, who are suffering through high unemployment and inflation. But the security apparatus that many say has turned Jordan into a police state generates as much antigovernment resentment as the poverty afflicting much of the kingdom’s population of 6 million.

Source: boston.
Link: http://articles.boston.com/2011-06-14/news/29657703_1_rabbo-mansour-hadi-opposition-parties-ruling-party.