A key outside broker will return to Yemen this week hoping to salvage the power transfer deal that aims to end months of turmoil in the Middle Eastern nation, a senior ruling party official said Sunday.
Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional coalition that helped broker the pact, will work this week on a solution to the crisis, according to the official. This includes a trip to Sanaa by the group's Secretary-General Abdullatif Al-Zayani He had abruptly left a meeting with President Ali Abdullah Saleh Saturday and appeared angry as he passed reporters on his way to his plane, according to a senior official in Saleh's General People's Congress party.
"Al-Zayani will be back in Yemen in the next 72 hours in an effort to end the crisis and convince both sides to sign the GCC proposal," the party official said.
Al-Zayani cut short this visit after Saleh made last-minute demands to move the pact's signing from Riyadh to Sanaa and his insistence that he'd sign it in his capacity as a leader of the ruling party and not as president.
Sunday was supposed to be a pivotal day in the process, with Saleh and opposition leaders once scheduled to go to Saudi Arabia to sign the initiative that they'd agreed to in principle at a meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council member state foreign ministers. State media in the United Arab Emirates reported that Foreign Minister H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan arrived in Riyadh on Sunday to head that meeting -- though he wasn't joined by key Yemeni figures most central to the deal.
The agreement stipulates that Saleh transfer power and leave office within 30 days of signing it. It also provides immunity for him and those who served in his regime and calls for a unity government to be formed within seven days.
But, in his meeting with Al-Zayani on Saturday, Saleh said a representative from his party and not he personally would go to Riyadh. A ruling party official explained that the president feared that a coup might take place, should he leave the nation.
That prompted leaders of the Joint Meeting Parties, the country's largest opposition bloc, to refuse to fly north themselves -- be it to sign any potential deal or even take part in the briefing by foreign ministers from around the region.
"Since President Saleh is not willing to sign the GCC proposal, there is no reason for the (opposition) to travel to Riyadh. We were going to sign and nothing else," said the opposition official, who is not authorized to speak to the media.
The official added, "The opposition will not travel until we get confirmation from the GCC that Saleh will sign, and has agreed to all the points of the proposal."
But later Sunday, the General People's Congress official insisted Saleh and his party remain committed to the agreement.
"The ruling party has no problem signing the GCC proposal, and President Saleh has welcomed it more than once," said this official.
And according to Saba, Yemen's state-run news agency, Saleh himself signalled he wanted the agreement carried out "as a whole" in a conversation with United Arab Emirates President Khalifa Bin Zayad al Nahyan.
A senior opposition official on Sunday accused Saleh of trying to torpedo the accord, particularly with his insistence he sign any agreement as a party but not government official.
"He has claimed to be Yemen's president for 33 years," said Sultan Atwani, a senior Joint Meeting Parties official. "And now he wants to deny that fact and be recognized as the head of the ruling GPC party."
The uncertainty over how and when the deal can be revived comes as massive countrywide protests that began in February continue to shake the impoverished and politically unstable nation.
Hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters poured out into the streets of at least 13 of the country's provinces on Saturday, all demanding that Saleh step down immediately.
CNN's Jennifer Fenton contributed to this report.
Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional coalition that helped broker the pact, will work this week on a solution to the crisis, according to the official. This includes a trip to Sanaa by the group's Secretary-General Abdullatif Al-Zayani He had abruptly left a meeting with President Ali Abdullah Saleh Saturday and appeared angry as he passed reporters on his way to his plane, according to a senior official in Saleh's General People's Congress party.
"Al-Zayani will be back in Yemen in the next 72 hours in an effort to end the crisis and convince both sides to sign the GCC proposal," the party official said.
Al-Zayani cut short this visit after Saleh made last-minute demands to move the pact's signing from Riyadh to Sanaa and his insistence that he'd sign it in his capacity as a leader of the ruling party and not as president.
Sunday was supposed to be a pivotal day in the process, with Saleh and opposition leaders once scheduled to go to Saudi Arabia to sign the initiative that they'd agreed to in principle at a meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council member state foreign ministers. State media in the United Arab Emirates reported that Foreign Minister H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan arrived in Riyadh on Sunday to head that meeting -- though he wasn't joined by key Yemeni figures most central to the deal.
The agreement stipulates that Saleh transfer power and leave office within 30 days of signing it. It also provides immunity for him and those who served in his regime and calls for a unity government to be formed within seven days.
But, in his meeting with Al-Zayani on Saturday, Saleh said a representative from his party and not he personally would go to Riyadh. A ruling party official explained that the president feared that a coup might take place, should he leave the nation.
That prompted leaders of the Joint Meeting Parties, the country's largest opposition bloc, to refuse to fly north themselves -- be it to sign any potential deal or even take part in the briefing by foreign ministers from around the region.
"Since President Saleh is not willing to sign the GCC proposal, there is no reason for the (opposition) to travel to Riyadh. We were going to sign and nothing else," said the opposition official, who is not authorized to speak to the media.
The official added, "The opposition will not travel until we get confirmation from the GCC that Saleh will sign, and has agreed to all the points of the proposal."
But later Sunday, the General People's Congress official insisted Saleh and his party remain committed to the agreement.
"The ruling party has no problem signing the GCC proposal, and President Saleh has welcomed it more than once," said this official.
And according to Saba, Yemen's state-run news agency, Saleh himself signalled he wanted the agreement carried out "as a whole" in a conversation with United Arab Emirates President Khalifa Bin Zayad al Nahyan.
A senior opposition official on Sunday accused Saleh of trying to torpedo the accord, particularly with his insistence he sign any agreement as a party but not government official.
"He has claimed to be Yemen's president for 33 years," said Sultan Atwani, a senior Joint Meeting Parties official. "And now he wants to deny that fact and be recognized as the head of the ruling GPC party."
The uncertainty over how and when the deal can be revived comes as massive countrywide protests that began in February continue to shake the impoverished and politically unstable nation.
Hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters poured out into the streets of at least 13 of the country's provinces on Saturday, all demanding that Saleh step down immediately.
CNN's Jennifer Fenton contributed to this report.
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