GPC official urges opposition to respond favorably to Saleh’s initiative

SANA’A, March 12 (Saba)- A senior official in the General People’s Congress (GPC) said on Saturday that the protests against the government was an attempt by some forces to justify their negative attitude and their failure to respond favorably to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s initiative. In an interview with Doha-based al-Jazeera TV, Abdul-Hafiz al-Nahari, deputy head of the Media Department of the General People’s Congress (GPC), said that ’’in the next few days, we expect an expansion of the Yemeni people’s popular rallying around the president’s initiative, especially since this initiative is providing a clear horizon and offering a roadmap for the Yemeni future’’. ‘’There is a large-scale popular discontent with the stand of the opposition, which has been marked by a sense of irresponsibility in its handling of such a refined and grand initiative. This initiative is meant to effect a comprehensive political reform of the political system of governance’’.He added that millions of Yemenis staged demonstrations and marches expressing support for the president’s initiative and calling upon the opposition to respond favorably to this initiative and to sit at the negotiating table. ‘’Meanwhile, the opposition, which is not offering an alternative, would drag the people into the unknown. The points of reference offered by those who took to the streets are transient, and they cannot remain as standing points of reference, as they would push people into sedition, conflict, and the unknown.”YASaba