Yemen opposition forms council to wrestle power from Saleh

Yemen’s opposition met to elect a “national council” aiming to take power from President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in Riyadh for 10 weeks recovering from serious injuries suffered in a bomb blast and has vowed to return to Yemen soon.“The national council will lead the forces of the revolution, determined to stand strong until Ali Abdullah Saleh’s departure,” said a key opposition leader, Soltan al-Atwani.The opposition hopes to unite the parties of the Common Forum, which includes the influential Islamist Al-Islah (reform) party, with the young protesters at the forefront of anti-regime protests since January.The council would also include representatives of civil society, members of the secessionist Southern Movement and the northern Shiite Houthi rebels, as well as independent activists.Tariq al-Shami, a spokesman of Saleh’s ruling General People’s Congress warned that “in forming this council, the opposition would sign the death certificate of the Gulf proposal” for a power transfer.“With this, they prove they are not for a peaceful solution but are trying to overthrow the constitutional legitimacy,” he said.The deal proposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council in April stipulates that Saleh would submit his resignation to parliament 30 days after passing power to his vice president, in return for immunity from prosecution.The opposition would then form a national unity government with the GPC equally represented, and presidential elections would follow two months later.The president, who has been in office since 1978 and whose current term runs out in 2013, insists that the Gulf proposal should be implemented “in accordance with the constitution.”The deal faltered in May after repeated delays by Saleh. In June, a bomb exploded at the president’s compound in Sanaa, and Saleh was flown to Saudi Arabia for treatment.Leading opposition figure Mohammad Salem Bassandaoua said “our people are ready to make more sacrifices to impose their will, like the Tunisian and Egyptian people,” a reference to protesters who drove their longtime leaders from power earlier this year.