SANAA/RIYADH: Gulf Arab states suspended their Yemen power transition deal, a statement said Sunday, after diplomats failed to persuade Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to sign the plan that would ease him out of power.
“[The GCC] decided to suspend the initiative because of a lack of the suitable conditions that had been agreed upon,” said the statement released after a meeting in Riyadh. Saleh refused to sign a transition of power deal Sunday, saying it would push the country toward civil war.

“It failed,” a diplomat told Reuters after the deal fell through at the last minute, for the third time. Diplomats said five members of the ruling party signed the deal, but Saleh refused, demanding additional conditions.
Saleh has said Al-Qaeda militants could fill a political and security vacuum if he is forced out and, in a televised speech Sunday, blamed the opposition for the deal’s collapse.

“If [Yemen] is engulfed in a civil war, they will be responsible for it and the bloodshed,” he said.
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia, both targets of foiled attacks by Al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based regional wing, are keen to end the Yemeni stalemate to avert a spread of anarchy that could give the militant network more room to thrive.
The failure of intense diplomatic efforts to secure a deal came after armed Yemeni government loyalists trapped Western and Gulf ambassadors – serving as mediators in the crisis – for hours in an embassy in Sanaa before they left by helicopter.

The deal would have given Saleh immunity from prosecution, ensuring a dignified exit after nearly 33 years at the helm of the Arabian Peninsula state.
“Saleh is not serious about getting out of power. And this is part of his strategy to remain in charge,” Dubai-based security analyst Theodore Karasik said, adding that the 69-year-old ruler was no longer seen as a trusted partner. “He might be able to hang on, but the pressure from outside is going to be so intense now that it could be his days are numbered,” he added.

In a move likely to infuriate Yemen’s Gulf and Western allies, gunmen loyal to Saleh surrounded a Gulf embassy, trapping diplomats working to resolve the crisis and blocking them from heading to the presidential palace to meet with Saleh.
Witnesses said GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif al-Zayani, who was at the forefront of the talks, was stranded for hours along with the U.S. ambassador and several European envoys in the United Arab Emirates Embassy compound.

The UAE urged Yemeni authorities to secure its embassy, state media said, and the diplomats were later said to have left by helicopter.
“We reject signing the Gulf initiative and the coup against legitimacy,” some pro-Saleh demonstrators shouted from their cars over loudspeakers elsewhere in Sanaa, while others piled up stone barricades to block traffic.
Yemen’s opposition had already signed the transition deal Saturday after indications from Gulf mediators that Saleh would sign a day later.

The opposition is under pressure to avoid further compromises from youth-led street protesters who seek Saleh’s immediate exit and who have vowed to continue daily rallies until Saleh quits.
Tens of thousands of protesters rallied peacefully Sunday across Yemeni cities to keep up the pressure. They have threatened to step up their campaign by marching on government buildings, a tactic that led to more bloodshed this month when security forces opened fire to stop them.

Two opposition tribesmen were shot dead Sunday in the countryside surrounding Sanaa, and seven others were wounded, when they tried to block presidential guards from moving in the area, an opposition official said.