Sana'a: Yemeni opposition parties agreed late on Saturday on a plan for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to transfer power.
After an exceptional meeting held by the opposition leaders, the spokesman of the opposition coalition, Mohammad Qahtan said the steps of this plan will be announced in hours tonight. "The ball would then be in the President's court," Qahtan said without any further details.
Earlier in the day sources said, the political crisis in Yemen is expected to come to an end very soon as all conflicting parties are about to agree on a deal giving President Ali Abdullah Saleh a "safe and honoured exit".
In focus: Unrest in the Middle East
The sources said that meetings and negotiations between Saleh and opposition with western mediators have not stopped since last week.
"I'm expecting a solution today Friday or tomorrow for this crisis," a source close to the negotiations which include American and European diplomats.
"The meetings and negotiations did not stop from last Saturday March 26th, 2011," the sources added. President Saleh said on Friday he would sacrifice himself for Yemen, a sentence which was widely understood as meaning that he would step down.
"I would sacrifice myself for you and for the Yemeni people," Saleh told about 2 million of his supporters who rallied in the two big squares of the capital, Tahrir and Al Sabeen and all the streets and sub-streets around them.
The state-run media estimated the number of people in the rally of Al Sabeen Square to be 4 million and those who participated in all provinces around 10 million.
Saleh's supporters, who called their Friday the "Friday of brotherhood and Tolerance", were chanting "Yes for security and stability, yes for constitutional legitimacy." Saleh's supporters came almost from all over the country to Sana'a. They were chanting "The People Want Ali Abdullah Saleh, the People Want Ali Abdullah Saleh".
At the same time on the other side of the city hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters were chanting "The People Want Ali Abdullah Saleh out, The People Want Ali Abdullah Saleh out".
