Opposition conditionally agrees on GCC plan

Sit-ins and protests must continue

By Nasser Arrabyee/23/04/2011

 

The Yemeni Islamist-led opposition coalition agreed late Saturday on the US-backed and Saudi-led GCC plan which wants Yemenis to have a new elected President within three months.

“But the sit-ins and protests will continue, because no one has authority on the young protesters,” said Yaseen Saeed Noman, the rotating chairman of the supreme council of the coalition which includes Islamists, Socialists, and Nasserites. One point of the GCC plan wants an end for the sit-ins and all kinds of protests.

Noman, who is the Secretary General of the Socialist party, said the coalition would allow the current acting government to run the country alone during the month before President Saleh steps down according to the GCC plan. The first point of the GCC plan wants both sides to form a unity government.

“We would concede our right to participate in this government,” Noman said after a meeting of the leaders of opposition coalition before announcing their position on the GCC plan.

Earlier in the day, the ruling party and its allies of the small parties, officially announced its agreement on the GCC plan.

Last Thursday, the final and non-negotiable GCC plan was officially handed over in Sana’a to both sides by the GCC Secretary General Abdul Latif Al Zayani.

The plan wants both sides to form a unity government immediately after the signing of the agreement by both sides. On the day 29th of signing, the Parliament should approve the laws that would guarantee immunity of prosecution of President Saleh, family and aides.

On the day 30th of signing, the President Saleh resign to the Parliament. The Vice President, who would be the legitimate President, should call for Presidential election within two months.

The new elected President should form a committee for writing a new constitution and then call for holding a public referendum on it.

Then, a timetable should be set for conducting parliamentary elections after which the a new government should be formed by the party that won in the elections.

However, the young people in the streets still refuse the GCC plan although the majority of them are belonging to the opposition coalition especially to the Islamists party, Islah.

 

The leading young protester Abdullah Salam says all the points of the GCC plan are good except for the point which calls for ending the sit-ins and protests.

 

“For us, we agree on the GCC plan as long as President Saleh will step down by it,” Said Abdullah Salam who leads a group of young protesters called “ Movement of Young People with the Uprising”.

“But we never ever agree on ending our sit-ins until we see with our eyes other points of the plan are implemented,” He said “ We do not trust this regime as long as security and army are under their control.”

 

The leading young protester Najib Abdul Rehman Al Sa’adi refuses the GCC plan because it totally ignores the young people in the street and talks only about the ruling party and the opposition.

 

“We do not accept it, because it ignores the real people, the young people who made the revolution,” said Al Sa’ada who leads a group of young people called “ February Movement of the Independent Young People”.

 

“The opposition coalition is a part of the problem and not a part of the solution, and unfortunately the GCC plan deals only with it (opposition).”

 

Adel Abdu Arrabyee, who also leads a group of young protesters called “ Union of Yemen Youth for Change” says they are waiting for a better plan from the GCC but not his one.

 

“We refuse the contents of this GCC plan because the step down was not immediate, and was not clear as we want, but we’ll keep appreciating efforts of our brothers in the Gulf to help us,” Arrabyee said.