U.S. Expert Says Early Elections “Best Solution to Yemen Crisis”

 

Source :  Yemen Post Staff 

01/09/2011

 U.S. experts said that holding early presidential elections is the best solution to the Yemeni crisis, as a Gulf source told Alriyadh newspaper on Wednesday that the GCC-brokered plan for an orderly power transition in Yemen was not modified.

“When we find an early solution to the political deadlock in Yemen, we can shift attention to issues most important relating to the economic and social situations in this poor country,” Christopher Boucek, a Middle East expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said.

 “It is necessary that the GCC bloc plays a key role in Yemen at the moment and in the future”.


However, some U.S. experts expressed their pessimism over the situation in Yemen saying that dangers remain possible.

 Bernard Haykel, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, said the situation in Yemen is unpredictable and does not bode well. “The family of President Saleh continues to lead key military units, mainly in the capital Sana’a”.

Haykel said that the return of Saleh might lead to a civil war which will negatively affect the interests of the GC C countries at a time when the GCC bloc is reviving its initiatives to solve the Yemeni crisis. 

President Saleh is facing mounting external pressure to sign the GCC plan and not to return home from Saudi Arabia where he is convalescing after a June assassination attempt in his compound.

Though he had backed out of signing the deal three times at the last minute, Saleh, in his speech to the nation on the eve of Eid Al-Fitr, said he had assigned the general committee of the General People’s Congress to contact the opposition, the Foreign Ministers of the GCC and the U.S. and EU ambassadors to find a suitable mechanism to sign the GCC deal without postponement.