SANA'A - Youth groups leading protests to oust Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh called on Gulf states on Saturday to withdraw a plan which has failed so far to remove him from power. Youth groups leading protests to oust Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh called on Gulf states on Saturday to withdraw a plan which has failed so far to remove him from power. Yemen's main opposition said on Friday the deal, proposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to end months of unrest, had been modified to allow Saleh to sign as party leader rather than president, a condition that nearly derailed the deal last week. “We call on the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council to stop any initiatives that result in alienating the Yemeni people,” the groups, under the banner Youth Revolution, said. “We call on the United States, the European Union and the permanent Security Council members to assume their moral responsibility and stop ... meddling directed against the will of the Yemeni people to ensure freedom and democracy,” said the statement signed by the Organisational Committee of the Popular Youth Revolution. Many demonstrators, who include students, tribesmen and activists, have vowed to stay in the streets until Saleh steps down. The plan requires the Yemeni leader, until recently backed by Saudi Arabia and the United States as a bulwark against Al Qaeda and regional instability, to resign 30 days after signing. Critics saw Saleh's refusal to sign as president as a clear sign that the shrewd political survivor had no intention of stepping down quickly. Sceptical opposition leaders said on Friday it appeared the GCC had acceded to demands by the ruling party. A Yemeni tribal source confirmed on Saturday that Anwar Al Awlaki, a US-born Al Qaeda propagandist known for encouraging attacks on the United States, was not hit by a US drone aircraft attack that killed two mid-level Al Qaeda militants in Yemen on Thursday. “We believe they targeted him. But he was not hurt,” the source, a kinsman of Awlaki, said by telephone from the cleric's home province of Shabwa where the attack occurred. Gulf states are eager to see peace return to Yemen, a poor state struggling to deal with internal rebellion and home to Al Qaeda in Yemen.
