UN envoy: Yemen president should transfer power

Yemens embattled president must speed up reforms and begin a transfer of power according to a plan backed by the international community, said a UN envoy on Monday.Jamal Benomar visited Yemen for a week to promote a Gulf-backed proposal that calls for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to transfer power to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution.Saleh told a TV interviewer that he will sign, but he did not say when.Saleh has resisted the proposal despite nearly nine months of protests against his 30-year rule. Several times he said he would sign, only to back away at the last minute. Months of international diplomacy has failed to resolve the crisis.Benomar held meetings with opposition figures on Monday, including Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who leads a military unit of defectors siding with the opposition and protecting protesters.Earlier in his trip, Benomar met with Saleh and his deputy.In a rare interview with foreign media, Saleh told the TV channel France 24 that he would sign the Gulf-backed package, but he would not say when that would happen or what was preventing him from doing so, vaguely noting that there was no time mechanism in the accord. The interview was broadcast late Monday.Definitely, definitely, Saleh replied when asked if he intended to leave power. I believe that anyone who grips on to power is crazy.Mediators and opposition figures have become exasperated with what they see as Salehs stalling tactics.He said that the media was lying when reporting he refused to sign the agreement. He accused armed militias of infiltrating peaceful demonstrations in Yemeni cities.Pro-Saleh forces regularly engage in deadly clashes with armed tribesmen and military defectors who support the protesters in Yemens largest cities, and al-Qaida-linked militants have taken control of entire towns in the countrys restive south.Security has collapsed across the Arab worlds poorest nation during the nine-month popular uprising.