Opinion | Editorials
Yemen needs a peaceful transition
Saleh and opposition should implement GCC proposal for orderly transfer of power
- Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 September 20, 2011
The killings of dozens of anti-government protesters in Yemen over the past two days came at a very delicate time. They seem deliberately timed to derail the talks which have started again between the government and the opposition, who have been marching since January seeking political reform and more inclusion, while also being brutally repressed as the government refused to deal with them.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been out of action in hospital in Saudi Arabia for three months, but very recently seemed to be moving to some kind of accommodation with the opposition. Over four months ago, the Gulf Cooperation Council with Qatar in the vanguard, had mediated and proposed a way for an orderly transfer of power, which almost went through before Saleh changed his mind at the last minute and rejected the deal.
But last week Saleh appears to have authorised Vice-President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, to sign the GCC initiative to arrange a transfer of power ‘within a week', although it may well be derailed again since Saleh is reported to have added a request that his son be included in the new government, which the opposition may well not accept.
With so much in the balance, it is not a coincidence that armed men are committing massacres of protesters. The opposition has reported seeing government forces on rooftops around the huge march on Sunday, but the deputy information minister Abdul Al Janadi has spoken much less convincingly of ‘unknown assailants' carrying out the attacks.
Yemen cannot go on as it is. Coping with its fragile political and economic state needs strong and stable government, so the peaceful transfer of power is the right way to go. The GCC proposal is the only likely route forward, and all parties should focus their energies on making it work.
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