Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was in Riyadh yesterday 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 yesterday, while UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar confirmed the 69-year-old president was to sign the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-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 said by telephone.
However, even as hopes rose that Yemen’s complex political logjam may finally be breaking, clashes broke out early yesterday in Sana’a 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 neighborhood of Sufan, they said.
Saleh has repeatedly backed out of signing the initiative at the last minute and yesterday, 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.
However, Benomar was confident both parties would also sign a UN-crafted roadmap that sets a mechanism for implementing the Gulf plan, under which Saleh would hand power to his deputy in return for immunity from prosecution.
According to the agreement, Saleh would on signing immediately hand “all necessary constitutional powers to his deputy, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi,” a diplomatic source said.
Political sources said Saleh would remain an honorary president for a period of 90 days, after which Hadi would 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,” said Mohammed Qahtan, spokesman for the Common Forum parliamentary opposition bloc.
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 by the opposition and by the president.
“All the parties have agreed to implement the GCC initiative,” Benomar had told reporters in Sana’a.
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