Yemen's Saleh refuses to sign GCC deal without implementation mechanism

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh met here with visiting UN envoy to Yemen Jamal bin Omar on Tuesday, saying he would not sign a UN-backed GCC initiative to transfer power unless an implementation mechanism is set up, a government official said. "President Saleh refused to sign the Gulf Cooperation Council ( GCC) initiative upon request of bin Omar during the meeting in the presidential palace, instead, Saleh asked bin Omar to arrange direct dialogue between his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the opposition leaders to set up a mechanism for implementing the GCC initiative," the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, the state-run Saba news agency reported that Saleh demanded that a practical mechanism and timetable should be reached and signed before the signing of the GCC initiative. He also renewed the willingness of his ruling party and his deputy Hadi to meet the opposition representatives to resume dialogue in order to reach the mechanism. However, Mohamed Salim Basindwa, chairman of the opposition National Council, who is visiting Gulf countries to seek support for ousting Saleh, told the opposition media that "they will not sign the proposed mechanism until Saleh signs the GCC initiative first." Basindwa also said that they decided to return to Sanaa on Wednesday to meet bin Omar who is scheduled to report the implementation of the UN resolution 2014 which was adopted on Oct. 21 to the Security Council on Nov. 21. The GCC deal, which was backed by the UN resolution, stipulates Saleh to hand over power to his deputy Hadi and quit in 30 days in return for immunity from prosecution. Hadi would then form an opposition-led national government and arrange presidential elections in 60 days. Saleh has backed out of signing the initiative for three times in the last minutes, confronting the 10-month-old protests. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of protesters took to streets in the capital Sanaa, western port city of Al-Hodayda, and southern provinces of Taiz and Ibb on Tuesday to call for ousting and prosecuting Saleh for "the violence that killed thousands of people since January."