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Yemen's Saleh Accuses Qatar of 'Conspiracy', Threatens to Quit Transition Deal
[An Nahar] Embattled President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ... has accused Qatar of a "conspiracy" and threatened to pull out of a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) transition deal to end the violence in Yemen. "Contacts are under way for the signing of the agreement on Monday in Riyadh, but we have reservations about some mediators involved in a conspiracy," Saleh said in an interview with the Russia Today television channel. He singled out Qatar among the six-nation GCC and accused it of causing unrest in Yemen where more than 145 people have been killed in the past three months as protesters demanding the immediate ouster of Saleh. "The state of Qatar is funding chaos in Yemen and in Egypt and Syria and throughout the Arab world," he charged. "We reserve the right not to sign if the representatives of Qatar are present" at the ceremony, Saleh warned. The foreign ministers of the GCC -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Soddy Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- are to meet in Riyadh on Sunday to finalize the Yemen transition deal before presenting it to the parties for ratification. The plan proposes the formation in Sanaa of a government of national unity, Saleh transferring power to his vice president and an end to the deadly protests rocking the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation since late January. The president would submit his resignation to parliament within 30 days, to be followed two months later by a presidential election. However, The well-oiled However... a defiant Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years, has publicly insisted on sticking to the constitution in any transfer of power, even though his ruling General People's Congress party has said it accepts the GCC plan. Posted by: Fred 2011-04-30 |
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