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Back to the GCC Table

The Following piece is written by a Yemeni-based journalist who writes for Foreign Policy Association (FPA) and, due to serious security concerns, remains anonymous.

Back to the GCC Table

In another interesting twist, the JMP (Joint Meeting Party) has declared on Saturday that it would send a delegation of its representative to Riyadh in order to discuss Saleh resignation. After having refused the GCC proposal over the non disclosure of a specific timeframe organizing the transition of power; the party is now said to be willing to discuss various avenues with the Gulf Arab ministers. Mohamed Basindwa, former Yemeni Foreign Minister will be headed the delegation.

“We have requested this meeting with the GCC states’ foreign ministers to explain our points of view on the Gulf initiative” said Yasin Noman, one of the senior members of the JMP.

However if most Yemeni senior politicians are still willing to maintain all avenues of communication open with the government, the Youth is seeing things much differently.

The Youth Movement, which let’s be honest constitute the core of this revolution, is very much that, a movement, and not a political party. If politicians are already shaping their vision of what Yemen’s tomorrow ought to be, the youth is only yearning for Saleh departure. The very essence of this Revolution is bent on this one goal: the fall of the regime.

Did you say stalling?

In between the political back and forth talks and a defiant Yemeni President, the country is stuck in limbo.

The capital remains somewhat under Saleh’s control as people tend to their daily life. Unless you are living near the epicenter of this uprising, you could be fooled into believing that everything is normal. If it wasn’t for many checkpoints and the screaming microphones chanting the regime’s virtues, Yemen is as it always was…

But under this sheen of normalcy, a storm is brewing. Many entrepreneurs and shop-owners who constitute the country’s middle class are now furious. Their businesses have been literally brought to a halt by the events and they are growing restless.

If the situation continues, those men might very well join those at the University.

If the President is trying to break the momentum of the protests by playing with time, he would have to reassess his strategy, because with every passing day, new men and women are joining the Revolution.

No more Unity

In Aden the movement leaders are imposing their will upon the population by forcing them to enact a general strike. In the Shabwa region, Sheikhs have organized themselves into a coalition to palliate to the departure of the State. Slowly Yemen is fragmenting… And as everybody knows once a door is open it is mughy hard to close it back again.

Oblivious to the chaos around him, Saleh is now accusing the demonstrators of displaying immoral behaviors by engaging with “unrelated” female. This latest insult led thousands of women to march in Sana’a demanding reparation for the damage made to their honor.

If indeed the situation in Yemen does seem to have advanced in any way, not politically in any case, a shift is however occurring. As an analyst previously said talking about Egypt, “any regime should tremble once its middle and upper class is joining those in the streets”.

With many Sheikhs opposed to his rule and growing segment of the population tired of his rhetoric, Saleh is on the verge to miss his exit. For all their talks of immunity, Yemeni leaders might meet still the fate of their Egyptian counterparts.

Stalled talks

The Gulf plan announced a week ago appeared to promise Saleh immunity from prosecution, an issue that had proved a stumbling block in earlier talks that stalled. Saleh accepted the Gulf talks framework the next day.

Noman said the opposition was concerned about the existing Gulf initiative, as it suggested that Saleh transfer powers to a deputy, and did not mention him actually quitting his post, a key demand for the opposition. Saleh, who has warned of civil war and the break-up of Yemen if he is forced out before organising an orderly transition, has urged opponents to reconsider their refusal to join talks.

He has said he wants to handover power to what he calls “safe hands”. But he also struck a defiant tone, and called the opposition liars and bandits. He also appealed to religious sensitivities in the conservative Muslim country by criticising the mixing of unrelated men and women among Sanaa protesters.

The remarks enraged many Yemeni women, who took to the streets in their thousands in across the country on Saturday to protest against his comments, saying women’s participation in protests was a religious duty.

Violence has also erupted in several parts of the country on Saturday. A local official said gunmen tried to storm a police station in the southern port city of Aden, and a soldier was shot dead in the southern province of Abyan, medical sources said. More than 116 protesters have been killed in clashes with security forces since late January, and there are fears that the violence could escalate in the country, at least half of whose 23 million people own a gun.