The soldiers of the army is waiting for a barrier blocking a demonstration demanding the ouster of Yemen President Ali Abdullah Salehin the southern city of Taiz 1 May 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Khaled Mohammed Ghobari and Mohamed AbdullahBy SudamSANAA | Sun 1 May 2011, 7: 47 am EDT
SANAA (Reuters)-A Wave-mediated deal to relieve Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh of power wobbled on the verge of collapse on Sunday after he refused to sign, raising the threat of increasing instability in the State of the Arabian peninsula.
The pact would have made Saleh, a wise political survivor who has been in power for 33 years, the third ruler ousted by a wave of pro-democratic popular uprisings sweeping the Arab world. He had the result of the deal on Saturday to sign it.
Yemen opposition, furious about the last change of heart, said that she considered rising pressure on the President step aside after three months of street protests demanding his ouster.
"We are studying the options of escalations and waiting for a U.S.-European stance on Saleh's refusal to sign," said a senior opposition leader Reuters, declining to be named because no formal decision had been taken.
A Gulf source said a formal signing ceremony in Riyadh on Sunday in which the opposition due to seal the deal was signed after Saleh in Sanaa was postponed. Download source package gave no word on whether or when it may be rescheduled.
The United States and neighbouring oil giant Saudi Arabia, the Yemen standoff resolved to avert from the chaos that a Yemen wing of al Qaeda a greater threat to the region could make.
Gulf Arab foreign ministers were to meet to discuss the crisis. But the opposition said it would not travel to Riyadh on Sunday to the talks, saying that there was no reason to attend.
Gulf Cooperation Council mediators told opposition Yemen on Saturday as leader of his party would sign but had refused to sign in his capacity as President as required by the deal. The GCC Secretary General, who for the signing in Sanaa, Yemen left without securing Saleh signature.
STILL HOPEFUL
But Yemen opposition said it still hoped that Gulf States Saleh would extract the signature. Both Saleh and the opposition, including both Islamists and leftists, had in principle accepted the deal.
"The case is now with the Gulf States. If they can convince Saleh, that would be good, "said Mohammed Basindwa, an opposition figure tipped as a possible interim Prime Minister, late on Saturday.
If it is brought back on the table, it would be a deal, Saleh appoint a Minister-president of the opposition at the head of a transitional Government, which would be a presidential election for 60 days after he shows. It would also grant immunity from prosecution to Saleh, his family and aides.
Protesters say they will continue on the streets to Saleh leaves. They also called for him to be tried for corruption and the death of the estimated 144 demonstrators.
In further violence, gunmen launched attacks with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire on Sunday against a building in the southern province of Abyan governorate, three Government soldiers guarding the site, killing and wounding four others, a local official said. He blamed the attack on al-Qaeda.
Violence is also recently broken out in southern Yemen, where analysts say the Government, which has tried to contain separatists in the South and Shi'ite rebels in the North, fears separatists trying to take advantage of Yemen of leadership crisis to renew a push for separation.
Analysts say that a 30-day window for Saleh to resign would be enough time to disgruntled forces of the old guard to stir problems in Yemen, where half the population owns a gun and al-Qaeda has gained a foothold in the mountainous regions.
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden; writing by Cynthia Johnston; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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