GCC Suspends Initiative to Yemen

By Fatik Al-Rodaini

Sana'a, May 23, 2011- The Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC announced on Sunday night the suspending of the GCC-brokered agreement to salvage the current crisis in Yemen.

The GCC foreign ministers decided Sunday to suspend their initiative because of the lack of suitable circumstances to sign it by all parties.

In a statement said they were keen on helping the Yemeni people to overcome their differences and to reach a compromise that would safeguard the security, stability and unity of Yemen.

They hoped Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh would sign the GCC-brokered agreement as soon as possible in order to pave way for a peaceful transition of power.

The foreign ministers called on all parties in Yemen to be patient and act wisely.

Yesterday, supporters of Saleh blocked Western diplomats and the head of the Gulf Cooperation Council that were negotiating the agreement at the United Arab Emirates’ embassy. The diplomats were later flown out by government helicopter.

Hundreds of other Saleh supporters blocked roads leading to the presidential palace, the airport, and the capital’s Tahrir Square, scene of opposition demonstrations.

Yemen's ruling General People Congress party and its partners signed on Sunday on the GCC initiative to solve the current crisis in Yemen in the Presidential Palace.

The Yemeni T.V. said that the representatives of the ruling General People Congress party and its partners signed on the agreement.

The deal was signed by the GPC's second Vice President Abdul Karim Al-Iriyani and the GPC's assistant secretaries Sadiq Amin Abu Ra's, Ahmed Ibn Dagher and Amat Al-Razzaq Humad and NDAP's Chairman Qassim Sallam.

The initiative was signed in the presence of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Prime Minister Ali Mujawar, GCC's Secretary General Abdullatif Al-Zayani and ambassador of the United States Gerald Feierstein.

sources said that President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to sign a GCC-brokered power transfer deal which was signed by the opposition late on Saturday after it had been teetering for more than a month.