Yemen's Saleh says to support power transfer, urges opposition to resume dialogue

Yemen's Saleh says to support power transfer, urges opposition to resume dialogue

 Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday said he will continue to support efforts of power transfer and leave office in accordance with a Gulf-brokered initiative, urging his opponents to resume dialogue to achieve the deal.

"I reaffirm my determination to continue to support the constructive efforts of Deputy President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the light of a mandate I gave him to resume the dialogue with the opposition and to sign the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative and its executive mechanism for achieving legitimate, democratic and peaceful power transition," Saleh said in a speech to the nation on the occasion of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.

"I urge the opposition parties to renounce violence and extremism and I call on their leaders to come back to sit with us at the dialogue table to complete discussing the remaining parts of controversial issues, in order to reach an agreement and set a time-agreed executive mechanism as soon as possible to implement the GCC initiative and its proposal of holding an early election to elect a new president for Yemen," Saleh said in his address which was reported by the state-run Saba news agency.

The GCC initiative, which was brokered in April, stipulated Saleh to quit in 30 days and hand over power to Hadi, who would then form an opposition-led national government and arrange presidential elections in 60 days. Saleh has backed out of signing the deal three times in the last minute.

The impoverished Arab country has been rattled by almost daily protests since late January to call for an end to Saleh's 33-year rule.

In the speech, Saleh also warned that "his resignation from office and the transfer of power will not be carried out if the opposition rebels and their supporters of the defected army continue to wage violence against government institutions and state troops."

English.news.cn   2011-11-06 03:09:32 FeedbackPrintRSS
SANAA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua)