GCC plan remains only option in Yemen

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is hoping to use the killing of Al Qaeda-linked cleric Anwar Al Awlaqi and another American citizen, magazine editor Samir Khan, inside Yemen by special American forces to gain political favour with the administration of President Barack Obama. The course of the anti-Saleh revolt in Yemen over the past months has clearly shown that Saleh has no intention to step down. In fact, he has been and is playing a cat-and-mouse game even with the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), which, with farsightedness and in good faith, drafted an agreement for a peaceful transition of power in Yemen. "The agreement is still on the table and it offers Saleh immunity from trial for the obvious abuse of power at the expense of his people", opined Sharjah-based English language local daily, The Gulf Today, in its editorial Friday. It added, while Saleh repeatedly affirms that he remains committed to the GCC-drafted agreement, it is clear that he is only stalling for time, hoping that his regime would somehow beat off the rebellion and survive in power. He has enough firepower at his disposal to prolong the conflict and cause more bloodshed. "One of his ace cards has been the use of the Al Qaeda presence in Yemen to keep Washington reminded that if his regime collapses then the country could become another Afghanistan, with Osama Bin Laden's affiliates in control", the paper said. It noted that ideally, the US would have liked Saleh to remain in power, but the brutal way he tried to quell the rebellion made it impossible for the Obama administration to maintain its call for a political compromise that would have seen the long-time strongman remaining in power. It had no choice but to demand that he step down. The paper underlined that Saleh is now hoping to use the killing of Awlaqi and Khan that he remains an "indispensable" ally of the Obama administration. Defying logic and reason, he expects to persuade US officials to back off demands for him to step down. There is indeed regional concern that Al Qaeda could dig in its heels in Yemen of there is a chaotic collapse of the Saleh regime. At the same time, "there are fairly strong institutions in the country and the opposition groups have come up with a national council that could oversee a potential transition to democracy. That is a relief." It added that there is too much of bad blood between the Saleh regime and the opposition groups for national reconciliation in Yemen with the embattled president remaining in power. Both sides are perfectly aware that it is live-or-die situation. If the regime retains power through the use of power, the paper continued, its first priority will be to wage war, both public and private, against those who challenged it. On the other side, Saleh and his close aides realise that they face disaster if the opposition comes into power. It concluded that Washington should be aware of this reality and its only option is to press for "regime change" in Yemen. The GCC-drafted proposal offers a way out, but it would elude implementation as long as Saleh does not accept the reality that his time as president of Yemen is up.