Yemenis are continuing the implementation of an agreed solution to end their one-year long political crisis, despite big obstacles, says Nasser Arrabyee One of the most important step taken this week was formation a military and security committee that will restore the stability of the country. Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi is the chairman of this committee which is made of 14 military and security commanders, seven from opposition and seven from the ruling party. The regional and international support for the solution was a major factor in the continuation of progress despite the tremendous difficulties. The 34-member opposition-chaired government of national consensus is supposed to start working from the beginning of next week. The opposition, which includes the six main opposition parties, have agreed to take 17 portfolios including the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Information, which means also half of the most important six ministries. The ruling party, still chaired by the outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh, took the other 17 portfolios including the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Petroleum, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) plan signed by all parties on 23 November in the Saudi capital Riyadh, the opposition divided the 34 cabinet portfolios into two lists and the ruling party chose one of them. That's the one which included the Ministries of Defence, Foreign Affairs, and Oil. Vice President Hadi must be the candidate of both the opposition and the ruling party in early presidential elections to be held on 21 February 2012. Independent candidates will be allowed to compete with Hadi. After this election, President Saleh will leave power, but would remain as chairman of his party. On Wednesday, the ruling party announced Hadi , who is now the secretary general of the party, as its candidate for the February presidential elections, according to the mechanism plan of the Saudi-led GCC initiative for power transfer. In the same meeting of the ruling party on Wednesday, the outgoing prime minister Ali Mohamed Mujawar, will be elected as a secretary general of the ruling party instead of Hadi, according to senior officials who are participate in the meeting. Prime Minister-designate Mohamed Basindawa said he had finalised the new government and would disclose the full list of cabinet members Wednesday evening. The pacification of the country is proceeding erratically. Opposition armed tribesmen and government troops started Tuesday to withdraw from the city of Taiz after four days of fierce fighting in which dozens were killed and injured from both sides. The Ministry of Interior said Tuesday that 110 rebel soldiers and officers were arrested in the city of Taiz including their commander Sadek Sarhan. Earlier this year, the rebel general Ali Mohsen sent the military commander Sarhan to fight against government troops in the city of Taiz. The arrest of Sarhan and his soldiers came after attempts from Western diplomats in Sanaa to convince general Mohsen to bring Sarhan back to Sanaa. Yemenis and Western monitors are now in the central southern city of Taiz to see who violate the agreements and kill civilians. In Saada, in the north, more than 30 people were killed and dozens injured in fierce fighting between Al-Houthi Shia followers and the Sunni Salafi group based in the same province of Saada over the last two weeks. The top leader of Shia, Abdel-Malik Al-Houthi, vowed in a speech delivered on Tuesday on the annual Shia festival of Ashura, to continue fighting against what he called the "American and Israeli conspiracy". Al-Houthi refused the GCC initiative to solve the Yemeni political crisis saying it was made by the American Ambassador in Sanaa. In a phone interview with the spokesman of the Salafi group in Saada, Abu Ismail, said Al-Houthi is exploiting the absence of the government in Saada and launching sectarian war against the Sunnis. Abu Ismail told Al-Ahram Weekly that two American, one French, one Russian, one Malaysian and two Indonesian Salafi students in Dammaj Salafi school in Saada were killed in the ongoing battles between the Al-Houthi Shia fighters and Sunni Salafi fighters. Al-Houthi fighters imposed a siege on 15,000 people including 6,000 students of the Salafi school in Dammaj area about 50 days ago. This week, Al-Qaeda in Lawdar in the southern province of Abyan assassinated the most active tribal leader in Lawdar, Tafik Al-Junaidi, who formed popular anti-Qaeda committees in the Al-Qaeda-stricken areas in the south. Militants of the Islamist opposition party Islah (brotherhood) assassinated a senior ruling party official who was the deputy governor of Dhammar province, Abdel-Karim Thafan, while he was leaving his office on Saturday. Two of Thafan's bodyguards were also killed in the operation which sparked a lot of anger and fear of more such retaliatory acts.
