Yemen unrest: Gulf FMs meet to discuss the way out
Gulf foreign ministers met on Sunday in the Saudi capital to discuss the crisis in Yemen.
RIYADH:
Gulf foreign ministers met on Sunday in the Saudi capital to discuss the crisis in Yemen, after proposing an exit plan for President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The move came as security forces were deployed heavily in Sanaa where hundreds of thousands of men and women took to the streets in protest at Saleh’s call for an end to men and women demonstrating together against the regime and calling for his ouster.
A delegation from the Yemeni opposition, led by Mohammed Salem Bassandawa, himself a former foreign minister, and Yassin Saeed Noman, head of the opposition Common Forum, were in the Saudi capital seeking details on a plan for Saleh’s departure.
“We will meet with the Gulf Cooperation Council ministers in Riyadh to ask for clarification on their initiative, especially on the departure of President Saleh,” Noman said ahead of the talks.
Abdelwahab al-Ansi of the Islamist Al-Islah party, Sultan al-Atwani of the Unionist Nasserist Party, and Hassan Zaid of Al-Haq Zaidi party were also among the Yemeni delegation.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2011.
Gulf foreign ministers met on Sunday in the Saudi capital to discuss the crisis in Yemen, after proposing an exit plan for President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The move came as security forces were deployed heavily in Sanaa where hundreds of thousands of men and women took to the streets in protest at Saleh’s call for an end to men and women demonstrating together against the regime and calling for his ouster.
A delegation from the Yemeni opposition, led by Mohammed Salem Bassandawa, himself a former foreign minister, and Yassin Saeed Noman, head of the opposition Common Forum, were in the Saudi capital seeking details on a plan for Saleh’s departure.
“We will meet with the Gulf Cooperation Council ministers in Riyadh to ask for clarification on their initiative, especially on the departure of President Saleh,” Noman said ahead of the talks.
Abdelwahab al-Ansi of the Islamist Al-Islah party, Sultan al-Atwani of the Unionist Nasserist Party, and Hassan Zaid of Al-Haq Zaidi party were also among the Yemeni delegation.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2011.