Yemenis signing accord in Riyadh

Yemen’s government and opposition will meet in Riyadh on Wednesday to sign an agreement brokered by Gulf States to end three months of deadly unrest, officials on both sides told Agence-France Presse.

“We have received an invitation from Saudi Arabia to sign on Wednesday an agreement on the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative in Riyadh,” said Sultan al-Barakani, the Deputy Secretary General of Yemen’s ruling party, the General people’s Congress.

A leader from the Common Forum, a coalition of Yemen’s parliamentary opposition, said a delegation from his group would also head to Riyadh to sign the agreement.

The Gulf initiative will see President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down within 30 days if he wants his immunity guaranteed, Mohammad Basindwa, an opposition leader and head of the Preparatory Committee for National Dialogue told Bloomberg in a telephone interview from Sana’a.

His committee includes opposition members and ruling party officials.

Mr. Basindwa, who is seen as a top candidate to lead a transitional government, told Reuters, “We expect an arrangement and signing of a deal to be completed—the sooner the better.”

Yemen’s opposition was initially unwilling to accept the GCC’s plan for Mr. Saleh relinquishing his power fearing that the Gulf initiative would give him an easy exit without going through any tribunal process or the opportunity to indict him.

However, now the opposition seems eager to allow the process of a transitional government to go through.

The opposition, which consists of a coalition of Islamists, leftists and Arab nationalists, accepted the plan late on Monday after agreeing to participate in a transitional national unity government, reversing their initial refusal.

“The Yemeni opposition told us they agreed and we are optimistic,” a Yemeni source, who asked for anonymity, told Al Arabiya on Monday.

Also on Monday, Yemeni security forces shot and wounded at least 10 people as they tried to disperse huge protests by anti-regime demonstrators south of Sana’a, witnesses said.

Yemen—whose population is 23.4 million—has an active al-Qaeda presence with influence in the country, and simmering regional rebellions that of sectarian and separatist in nature in the north and the south.

(Dina Al-Shibeeb of Al Arabiya