The Yemeni opposition was seeking details from Persian Gulf foreign ministers who were meeting yesterday in Riyadh on a plan for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s departure, an opposition leader said.
“We will meet with the Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] ministers in Riyadh to ask for clarification on their initiative, especially on the departure of President Saleh,” Yassin Saeed Noman, head of the opposition Common Forum said.
Since January, Saleh has faced protests calling for his departure, in which more than 125 people have been killed.
Photo: EPA
An opposition delegation — led by former Yemeni foreign minister Mohammed Salem Bassandawa and also including Abdelwahab al-Ansi of the Islamist al-Islah party — was to travel to Riyadh later yesterday, Noman said.
The Common Forum has made Saleh’s departure a prerequisite for any political settlement, while the council’s bid to resolve the crisis calls for him to hand over power to his vice president.
Saleh’s office has said in response to the mediation bid of the six-nation council he has “no reservation about transferring power peacefully and smoothly within the framework of the Constitution.”
US and European diplomats have during the past week been working to bring the opposition and Saleh’s camp together, a Western diplomat said.
“The Common Forum has obtained American and European assurances on the success of the GCC initiative, especially for a rapid departure of President Saleh,” said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The opposition has for the time being ruled out dialogue with the regime, and on Saturday threatened not to send its delegation to Riyadh if government representatives were also in the Saudi capital.
A source close to the government said “no government representative will go today to Riyadh.”
The council foreign ministers, holding their third such meeting in two weeks, were to “discuss the Gulf initiative concerning the situation in Yemen,” the Saudi state news agency SPA said late on Saturday.
After their last meeting on April 10, council ministers announced a plan for Saleh to transfer power to his vice president and for the formation of an opposition-led unity government ahead of fresh elections.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number