Balanced resolution and balanced solution

By Nasser Araabyee,25/10/2011

Finally a solution for Yemen's 10-month long political crisis is almost found.

The President Ali Abdullah Saleh would stay with symbolic powers until a new president is elected in late February or early March of 2012.

Almost all presidential powers will be in the hand of Vice President, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the man who has almost national consensus to run the country during the expected 3-6 month transition period.

Earlier this week, President Saleh welcomed a UN Security Council urging him to transfer power according to a deal brokered by the Saudi-led six nations of the Arabian Gulf and supported by the international community.

The UN resolution equally urged all armed conflicting parties to stop war and return to dialogue for political solution.

According to reliable sources close to President Saleh and opposition , all parties have agreed on a mechanism to implement the GCC deal in a way that equally satisfies almost all parties.

President Saleh is expected to announce this week a new authorization for his deputy Mr Hadi to issue republican decrees for implementing the GCC deal.

This authorization will mean that Saleh will stay until a new President is elected and Hadi will run all public affairs during the transitional period.

By this, the most complicated two issues that were always behind the failure of negations and dialogue between Saleh and the Islamist-led opposition forces, will be solved.

The negotiators agreed on 85 per cent of the issues until September 23rd, 2011, when President Saleh returned from Saudi Arabia where he had more than three months treatment from injuries he suffered from a failed assassination attempt.

The remaining 15 per cent was simply: Saleh does never want to resign before early presidential elections. The opposition wants him only to resign first.

The second issue is, if they agreed on conducting elections, will the son and nephews of Saleh who now lead the army and security, remain in their positions or not before and during the elections?

Now it seems that these two issues will be solved.

The authorized vice president Hadi, will entrust a man from the opposition to form a national unity government shared fifty, fifty by Saleh's ruling party and the opposition coalition.

The members of the new opposition- chaired government will take the constitutional oath before the authorized vice president Hadi. Taking the oath before Saleh was one of the points that some of the opposition leaders refused in the past.

The symbolic President Saleh will then call for presidential elections in which, of course, he is not going to stand as his current constitutional term is the last.

Saleh's son Ahmed, who heads the most well-equipped and qualified and trained troops of the republican guards, and the three other nephews, Yahya, Ammar, and Tarek, who are in charge of the central security, national security, and special guards respectively, will remain in their positions until a new president is elected.

The big concern of the opposition about holding presidential elections with the army and security still controlled by Saleh, will be removed by forming a military and security committee chaired by the authorized vice president Hadi. The army and security will be under the control of this committee in which the opposition forces will be represented.

The ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, EU, and GCC were briefed on this new mechanism of implementing the GCC deal by the Yemeni government on Monday October 24th, 2011.

The political advisor of President Saleh, Dr Abdul Kareem Al Eryani, who briefed the diplomats on the new solution of the 10-month long political crisis in Yemen said, " We are very interested in finding out a political solution with the opposition based on the GCC deal and the UN Security Council resolution."

The UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Bin Omar, and GCC chief Abdul Latif Al Zayani are expected to return to Yemen next week to monitor the implementation of the GCC deal with the new mechanism.