GCC Chief to Return to Yemen to Renew Mediation

Gulf states said on Sunday they are to renew efforts to end a deadly political crisis in Yemen, after the opposition accused President Ali Abdullah Saleh of having torpedoed their bid at the weekend.

The Gulf Cooperation Council "hopes to remove all the obstacles still standing in the path of achieving a final agreement," the six-nation grouping of Yemen's oil-rich Arab neighbors said after a meeting in Riyadh.

GCC secretary general Abdul Latif al-Zayani is to "go back to Sanaa with this aim," it said, without specifying a date.

Delegations from Saleh's ruling party and the Common Forum opposition coalition had been expected to join GCC foreign ministers in the Saudi capital on Sunday to sign the deal ahead of Saleh's exit.

"There is no longer an invitation. The general secretary of the GCC left yesterday without the president's signature, so the initiative has failed," opposition official Mohammed al-Sabri told Agence France Presse earlier.

Zayani left Sanaa on Saturday after failing to have Saleh endorse the GCC-proposed deal to end Yemen's three-month-old crisis, but the meeting of Gulf foreign ministers went ahead as scheduled in Riyadh.

"Four sessions of talks were held to convince him (Saleh), and every time he came up with a new condition," Sabri said.

The Common Forum, in a statement, has held the regime "completely responsible for ruining the (Gulf) effort" and accused Saleh of "maneuvering ... to gain time in an effort to push the country into chaos."

They urged Yemen's Arab neighbors to "continue with their efforts ... and to exert all sorts of pressure to stop the violence and killing of peaceful protesters."

Another leading opposition figure, Sultan al-Atwani, head of the Unionist Nasserist Party, urged the Arab monarchies of the GCC to pressure Saleh to sign the deal.

The GCC deal proposes the formation of an opposition-led government of national unity, Saleh transferring power to his vice president and an end to the deadly protests that have rocked the country since late January.

Under the accord, the president would submit his resignation to parliament on the 30th day after the deal, a day after parliament would have passed a law guaranteeing immunity from prosecution to Saleh and his aides.

A presidential election would follow in 60 days.

However, a defiant Saleh has publicly insisted on sticking to the constitution in any transfer of power, even though his ruling People's Congress Party has said it accepts the GCC plan.

Zayani visited Sanaa on Saturday to formally invite Saleh and his opponents to sign the power transfer deal, state media had said ahead of a signing ceremony that was to have taken place in Riyadh on Monday.

But he left empty-handed after the president refused to sign the deal himself, instead assigning one of his advisers to do so on his behalf, sources close to both sides said.

And after Zayani informed members of the Common Forum of Saleh's position, they also refused to sign the pact unless the veteran leader himself endorsed the agreement.

Demonstrations calling for Saleh's immediate ouster have cost more than 145 lives over the past three months.

On Sunday, demonstrators again took to the streets of Taez, Yemen's second-largest city, insisting on their demand for the ouster of Saleh and his regime.

"We are not concerned by the initiative, whether they sign or not," said Ahmed al-Wafi, a leading activist among the mostly young protesters in Taez, south of the capital.

Demonstrators also condemned the killing of four protesters in Aden on Saturday when security forces stormed a sit-in demonstration.

The Watan coalition of youth groups denounced the attack, charging that "bloody oppression apparatus stormed the 'Freedom Square' with armored vehicles and tanks, and burned tents."

It urged the Common Forum to "return to their grass roots ... on the street with other demonstrators."