Yemen government, opposition poised to sign US dialogue principles

Sep 30, 2011, 19:15 GMT

Cairo - The Yemeni government and the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) were poised late Friday to sign an agreement on the basic principles of dialogue, under the US supervision.

The move came on the day Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born radical Islamist cleric seen as a spiritual leader of al-Qaeda, was killed in Yemen in an airstrike.

Yemen has been in a state of extreme civil unrest since the Arab Spring this year, with embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh fleeing the country for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia after a rocket attack on his office.

Saleh had previously refused to sign a peace deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). He returned to Yemen last week after spending more than three months in Riyadh, but maintains he will not step down as long as his opponents remain in influential positions.

The deal expected to be signed Friday is not the GCC agreement, but a declaration of principles of peaceful dialogue.

This comes as a result of three-day roundtable talks led by the United States, with a European participation, in a bid to come up with a peaceful end to the Yemeni crisis, which has been overwhelming the country for eight months.

Meanwhile, the UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal bin Amr, raised concerns about the possibility that the Yemeni government and opposition fail to reach an agreement over the basic principles for dialogue leading to the ultimate singing of the Gulf deal.

In a statement Friday evening, bin Amr said it is not acceptable for violence to continue and to keep silent as Yemenis' rights are being stolen.

'It is not possible to endure the circle of violence in Yemen,' he said, asking the Yemeni political parties to find an urgent solution for the crisis.

'The solutions can be only Yemeni,' said bin Amr, who is on his fifth visit to the country as a UN envoy.

Several rallies marched Friday in a number of provinces seeking the ouster of Saleh, and strongly denounced a statement made Thursday by Islamic scholars loyal to Saleh which prohibited demonstrations.

Observers say such a ban would make it legal for Saleh forces to kill and arrest protesters taking part in anti-government marches.