With Yemen's President Saleh still hanging on, tribal conflicts throughout the country continue without resolution in sight, writes Nasser Arrabyee Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said he will do his best to meet the demands of the youth for change and development. He said dialogue between all political forces is the best and the only way for achieving the aspirations of the people for a better life. "Only through dialogue we can reach a compromise that leads to the achievement of the aspirations of Yemenis for change and development," Saleh said in a speech on the occasion of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, which started 1 August. "Violence and conspiracies will never ever achieve the change," added Saleh who is still recovering in Saudi Arabia from injuries sustained in a failed assassination attempt on 3 June 2011. President Saleh's speech came only two days after a UN envoy, Jamal Bin Omar, warned of a total collapse of the state if a solution through dialogue is not reached soon for the six- month crisis gripping the country. The UN official who left Yemen early this week after 10 days of consultations with all parties, proposed that the UN, EU and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) should sponsor dialogue for a power transfer and conducting presidential elections by the end of this year. The Islamist-led opposition coalition insisted, however, that President Saleh must step down and transfer power to his deputy before any dialogue is possible. Saleh's ruling party insists that Saleh must continue as president until a new president is elected. Officials say Saleh would authorise his deputy, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, to engage in UN-sponsored dialogue with the opposition and supervise elections, rather than transfer all powers to him. Bin Omar would brief top UN officials on the results of his consultations returning to Yemen in September. Meanwhile, pro and anti-government protests continue everyday almost everywhere in the country. More than $8 billion is the total income loss sustained so far because of protests, according to official statistics. Pro-protesters, who remarkably increased after the failed assassination attempt on Saleh and his top aides, demand that Saleh stay until the end of his current constitutional term on 20 September 2013. The Yemen government is now facing at least three fronts because of the current political and economic crisis. One is north of the capital Sanaa, where armed opposition tribesmen frequently try to enter Sanaa. Another is in the south with Al-Qaeda operative. The third is in the central city of Taiz where armed opposition tribesmen want to control the city. Earlier this week, the opposition tribesmen of Arhab in the north threatened to strike Sanaa International Airport in retaliation for army attacks on their villages. "The barbaric aggression on our areas has reached its climax by the remnants of Saleh's regime. They used against us all the kinds of weapons they have: tanks, artillery, missiles, and finally airplanes," said the tribesmen in a statement. "We will strike... with all available methods of war in retaliation for that aggression." One day before the threat, about 100 tribesmen and 20 soldiers were killed when airplanes hit tribesmen while storming part of the Samaa Camp of the Republican Guards, about 30 kilometres north of Sanaa airport. The armed tribesmen are led by the two prominent Islamist figures from Arhab district, member of parliament Mansour Al-Hanik and cleric Abdel-Majid Al-Zandani, who is wanted by the UN and US for alleged global terrorism. Defected General Ali Mohsen supports the tribesmen of Arhab who use artillery and missiles in their attack on three brigades of the Republican Guards who have been based in areas of Arhab for tens of years. Tribal sources said that Sheikh Abdel-Majid Al-Zandani urged over the last few weeks the tribesmen in Arhab and other areas to join tribal fighters against the army. Mediation failed to stop confrontations between the Islamist opposition and the Republican Guard. "The tribesmen who fight the army do not have a specific demand. Every time we tell them there must be a solution or at least a truce, they ask for time for consultation and nothing happens after that," one tribal leader, Abdel-Jalil Senan, leading the mediation in Arhab told the Weekly. "They have not refused mediation and they have not agreed on a truce, but after the attack on the camp of Samaa, it became clear they were only buying time," Senan said. In the south, where recently a lot of tribesmen turned against Al-Qaeda, more than 40 tribesmen were killed in botched airstrikes and clashes with Al-Qaeda operatives earlier this week. The airstrikes happened after at least 15 tribesmen fighting with troops were killed by Al-Qaeda operatives at a tribal checkpoint close to Zinjubar in the southern province of Abyan. Al-Qaeda operatives attacked the checkpoint in Shukrah, 48 kilometres east of Zinjubar, on Friday night after tribesmen killed an Al-Qaeda fighter and arrested another at the same checkpoint, according to local sources. A military source said that the guerrilla war tactics of Al-Qaeda was keeping tribesmen and the army from controlling the city Zinjubar, which was held by Al-Qaeda in late May. "We need some time to take some technical steps to avoid Al-Qaeda suicide operations and also to weaken their abilities," the military official said on condition of anonymity.
