SANA'A: Officials announced that the United Nations Security Council session, which was supposed to be held on Monday, was postponed to next week, leaving President Ali Abdallah Saleh some more maneuvering space to attempt to find a political solution to the current popular uprising. UN special envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, who just concluded his round of negotiations with the regime and the opposition told the press on Sunday that both parties had actually requested the extension. “The Security Council meeting was postponed to 28 November at the request of the protagonists”. The 2014 UNSC resolution which was passed unanimously by the 15 members urged President Saleh to put an end to his bloody crackdown on protesters and to comply with the wishes of his people by agreeing to a power-transfer deal brokered by the GCC countries. Despite having agreed to ink the proposal, Saleh has so far failed to honor his word, using one excuse after the other, all the while maintaining his willingness to solve the “crisis” as he calls it, peacefully. But if the opposition is still willing to play along and sign a power-transfer which guarantees Saleh immunity from prosecution, protesters in the streets are much less compliant, especially since the regime last killing spree in Taiz; where several women and children were gunned down by snipers in broad day light. Activists in and outside have already started a campaign on Twitter and Facebook calling on Yemenis to lobby the GCC deal entirely as they believe it will only serve the political class and not the people. More troubling President Saleh just announced that he was ever to relinquish power, he would entrust the state to the army…in other words in son, Ahmed Ali Abdulllah Saleh. With the street running out of patience after 11 months of peaceful protests and news that the country will face yet another fuel penury, anger could just spill over at any given moment. BM
