الرئيسية
A young supporter of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah
Saleh (portrait) sits watching during a rally in support of his regime
in Sanaa. Saleh arrived unexpectedly in Riyadh early Wednesday for the
signing of a Gulf-sponsored power-transfer deal, an official told
AFP.(AFP/File/Mohammed Huwais)
By Hammoud Mounassar, AFP
SANAA (AFP) - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was in
Riyadh Wednesday to sign a Gulf plan that will finally end his 33-year
hardline rule, a UN official said, even as his capital was rocked by
fresh violence.
Yemeni television said Saleh arrived in Riyadh
early on Wednesday while UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar confirmed the
69-year-old president was to sign the Gulf Cooperation Council-brokered
deal in the Saudi capital under which he will immediately hand power to
his deputy.
"The signing ceremony will take place today in Riyadh," Benomar told AFP by telephone.
But
even as hopes rose that Yemen's complex political logjam may finally be
breaking, clashes broke out early Wednesday in Sanaa between gunmen
loyal to dissident tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar and pro-Saleh
troops, residents said.
The fighting rocked the capital's
Al-Hasaba district while explosions were also heard in the nearby
neighbourhood of Sufan, they said.
Saleh has repeatedly backed
out of signing the initiative at the last minute and even on Wednesday
there was no certainty he would finally append his signature to the
document.
The opposition signed the deal in April but Saleh's
stalling has triggered months of political deadlock that has left the
government in a state of chaos and the economy in shambles.
Benomar
however was confident both parties would on Wednesday also sign a
UN-crafted roadmap which sets a mechanism for implementing the Gulf
plan, under which Saleh will hand power to his deputy in return for
immunity from prosecution.
According to the agreement, Saleh will
on signing immediately hand "all necessary constitutional powers to his
deputy Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi," a diplomatic source said.
Political
sources said Saleh will remain an honorary president for a period of 90
days, after which Hadi will be elected as a consensus president for a
two-year interim period.
During the transition period, however, Saleh will not be able to enforce any political decisions nor veto those of Hadi.
Protesters,
who have faced a brutal 10-month government crackdown that has left
hundreds dead and thousands wounded, have rejected the Gulf plan and
want Saleh to be brought to trial.
"It seems like President Saleh
finally found himself forced to sign. He will sign and I don't think
there will be any surprises," Mohammed Qahtan, spokesman for the Common
Forum parliamentary opposition bloc, told AFP.
Protesters on "the
streets reject the Gulf Initiative," Qahtan said. "People will not go
back to their homes until the honorary period ends."
Yemeni
television said Saleh was in Riyadh "in response to an invitation by the
Saudi leadership to attend the signing of the Gulf Initiative and its
implementation mechanism ... to take the country out of its crisis."
Saleh's
visit came after the UN's Yemen envoy said on Tuesday a deal aimed at
ending months of political deadlock had been approved both by the
opposition and by the president.
"All the parties have agreed to implement the GCC initiative," Benomar had told reporters in the capital Sanaa.
The
deputy leader of the ruling General People's Congress, Sultan
al-Barakani, told AFP Tuesday that final touches are being made to the
implementation mechanism and the document of guarantees to the president
and his entourage, based on the Gulf plan.
State news agency
Saba reported Tuesday that Saleh received a telephone call from UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who "thanked him for positively responding
to the UN resolution 2014."
In May, Saleh's supporters took the
streets besieging the Emirati embassy in Sanaa where foreign ambassadors
were gathered for the signing ceremony. The signing was postponed and
clashes broke out for the first time between Ahmar's men and Saleh's
forces in Al-Hasaba.
