US obstacle to regime change in Yemen'

August 17, 2011

The opposition in Yemen has announced the formation of the National Council for Peaceful Revolution forces.

The council aims to unify different forces across the country to ouster the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh.

It consists of 143 members elected by 800 representatives of different opposition groups.

Those elected will now choose 20 members to make up an executive committee.

The announcement for the national counsel comes only a day after Saleh vowed to return to Yemen soon.

He has been receiving treatment in Riyadh since June after an attack on his palace.

Yemen's embattled ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh has once again defied calls to leave power as he's promised to return home soon.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mohamed Qubaty, a Yemeni opposition activist, to further talk over the issue

The following is the text of the interview, which is also supported by two other guests:

Press TV: What do you make of Saleh's statements that he has made on Tuesday vowing to return to the country?

Qubaty: I think we should keep in mind that we are dealing with a man who is dishonest, unpredictable and untrustworthy then perhaps it's not quite baffling to hear him again speaking about his return, speaking to his colonies in spite of what we have heard that he has been advised by the Western countries and the Americans and perhaps even the GCC countries advised him not to return to Yemen because that is the recipe for disaster, especially after we heard that Sheikh Sadegh Al-Ahmar has vowed and he said that he'll never be ruled by this man again.

So I mean the man is…, obviously he doesn't mind playing with fire and he doesn't mind getting his fingers burnt, but does he realize that he actually, or perhaps he doesn't even care that he's pushing the whole country and the whole area into disaster and to burn the whole of the area, this is quite intriguing if this man speaks from Saudi Arabia with such, you know, I mean, after all the insults he has actually caused for them and he has directed to them and the embarrassment he has caused them because this man, you have heard that he said that he'll agree or he has agreed recently to sign the GCC initiative and speaking about his return he's turning the table against everybody and speaking from Riyadh I think this is quite an embarrassment for the West and for the Americans and for all people who say that the man has gone back and he is willing now to reach a compromise and to take advantage of the promises given for him to secure from further trials and be given some sort of amnesty, time I don't know…

Press TV: At this point in time how do you see Washington's role in all of this? Do they want a change in Yemen? Do you think that they are supporting revolutionaries? Or have they still put all their hopes on the Saleh regime?

Qubaty: Unfortunately we've heard what we could call as service toward encouraging the change in Yemen but we've not seen actual actions on the ground you know, we've heard the United States and the West saying that they're trying to convince Saleh to give up power and to transfer power and to allow change go forward in Yemen but unfortunately this man is now suddenly appearing on TV and he is promising his colonies he is going to return so he is pushing the country towards chaos, anarchy and disaster. This chaos and anarchy, actually does that help the interests of the United States? In the country chaos and anarchy will actually encourage more terrorism if the United States is worried about Al-Qaida, then Al-Qaida shouldn't be coming in such an environment. So I think the Americans have got to think once and twice, this man needs to be treated in a different way. I think till now we have not heard actual actions from the West, we have never seen till now any freezing of the funds of this man and his colonies, we have not seen any embargo on weapons to the country, we have not seen any sanctions against the country.

Press TV: Why is that the case? Why haven't we seen any of the things that you've just mentioned Mr. Qubaty?

Qubaty: I think at one time before the Americans had left the issue of sorting all the problems in Yemen in the hands of our friends in the region, you know there was some sort of cooperation between regional forces and global forces, so the regional forces were allowed to try and strike a sort of a solution and unfortunately Ali Abdullah Saleh has been- for the past four months - playing a game, his goals are very very clear, at one time he agrees that he will be signing this initiative and more than three times he has negated, so obviously this man is playing his game, he doesn't worry at all that to push the whole country into anarchy and he feels that he holds the world at ransom and nobody can actually confront him.

Press TV: What does it take at this point of time in your perspective for the Yemeni people to be victorious?

Qubaty: Well, I think Yemenis have got to go on a parallel pathway, one of the pathways should be the revolutionary pathway and the formation of an inclusive national assembly, this is more than urgent, it has been awaited for the past two or three months now and hopefully it should appear tomorrow and we should hear the names of the inclusive generals of our national assembly and from it an interim national council should be formed. The other way is for the politicians as well to get engaged with the rest of the world, we haven't seen the opposition actually engaged now with the United Nations, with the West, with the GCC countries, with all the forces in the region and globally, so that they can show the dangers this man is pushing the country into.

Source: Press TV