Wednesday, February 02, 2011

By Jamal al-Jaberi
Agence France Presse

SANAA: Yemen’s president, facing demands that he resign, has called for a meeting of Parliament and the consultative council, as the opposition has declared that it is “too late” for dialogue and that he must go.

Ali Abdullah Saleh is expected to address the special meeting ahead of a “day of rage” that civil society organizations have called for Thursday, an official said without providing details of what the president would say.
Facing protests that have multiplied since the mid-January ouster of Tunisia’s president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Saleh has taken measures aimed at soothing popular discontent.

After increasing wages and reducing incomes taxes Monday, he ordered the creation of a fund to employ university graduates and to extend social security coverage.

Saleh also decided to exempt university students from the rest of their tuition fees for this academic year, and charged the high council of universities to reduce the cost of a degree, Saba said.

A governing body of Saleh’s General People’s Congress party called Friday for a resumption of dialogue with opposition parties, which are currently at an impasse.

Talks on political reform have stalled since the authorities’ decision to hold legislative elections on April 27, without awaiting the dialogue outcome, and a special committee set up to oversee reform has met only once.

“I’m afraid that it has become too late for dialogue as … People are no longer demanding dialogue,” said Mohammad al-Sabri, a leader in the Common Forum, a parliamentary opposition alliance.
Yemenis, who have been protesting on a nearly daily basis in Sanaa since mid-January, have called for a nationwide “day of rage” Thursday.

The opposition has no choice left but to call for “change … beginning with the president,” said Sabri who appealed to the army to back the people.

Meanwhile, GPC spokesman Tareq al-Shami said that his party has “decided to take to the streets [Wednesday] to protect the people from the deception carried out” by the opposition.

Shami, who said the GPC will abide by whatever decision is reached through dialogue, added that his party’s “biggest concern is to go ahead with the [April] elections.”

He accused the opposition of “trying to take advantage of what happened in Egypt and Tunisia.” But “no doubt we have learned a lesson from what happened in Tunisia and what’s going on in Egypt … we are trying to work more on responding to the people’s demands within our country’s capabilities.

However, Shami warned that the consequences of any move similar to that in Egypt or Tunisia “will not only affect Yemen but its aftermath will extend to other countries in the region.”