Yemeni President Saleh welcomes UN resolution

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh welcomed the United Nations Security Council resolution which called on him to sign a Gulf Arab initiative to transfer power, the official Saba News Agency reported Tuesday. Saleh welcomed Monday the resolution 2014 passed by the 15- nation council last Friday, Saba reported. Saleh reaffirmed the readiness of his ruling party to immediately sit down with the opposition to resume dialogue for reaching an agreed executive mechanism and the final signing of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative as soon as possible, according to the report. "After reaching an agreed mechanism and signing the GCC initiative, the process of holding agreeable-timed early presidential elections will be launched immediately," Saba quoted Saleh as saying. The power-transfer initiative brokered by the six-nation GCC in April was signed by the opposition in May, while Saleh has backed out from signing it for three times in the last minutes. Related: Yemeni president demands international guarantees for power-transfer deal SANAA, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Wednesday he was ready to sign a power-transfer deal if the opposition provides guarantees from the United States, Europe and Gulf countries for implementing the proposal. "After my return from Saudi Arabia, where I spent 112 days for treating injuries I sustained from the June 3 attack, they ( opposition) demand that I sign the Gulf (power-transfer) initiative. Fine, we are ready to sign the deal, either me or my deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi," Saleh said in a speech before a meeting of his party leaders in Sanaa, aired by the state television.    Full story