President: We accepted Gulf initiative to save blood

Saba
SANA’A, April 30 (Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh has renewed the acceptance of the Gulf initiative to resolve Yemen’s crisis, considering it a complete agreement for saving Yemeni blood and ending riots and protests that hindered development and annoyed citizens. In an interview with Russia Today Channel, Saleh said the initiative must be carried out in whole and that the GCC member countries must work on creating a mechanism to implement it without changes to any item or clause. Over the reasons behind the crisis, he said the crisis in Yemen was not new, ‘’It has started in 2006 when the Joint Meeting Parties hardly accepted the results of the presidential elections. As a result, protests and marches began early and after the Tunisian and Egyptian incidents, they started imitating what happened there with the help of Al Jazeera. By these acts, they escalated the crisis for their interests with big audience from the citizens. They revolted against the constitutional legitimacy and created riots’’. The President demanded an end to protests and called on rebels from the army to surrender or get out of the country along with inciters from citizens. He preconditioned to sign the initiative that Qatar must not attend the signing ceremony ‘’because it supports Al- Jazeera which incites fro riots in the Arab world’’. Regarding the time of power transition and his political future, Saleh said that he had accepted the time given in the initiative and he has not any conservation on this, adding that he will remain the chairman of the General People Congress until the party chooses a new leadership and will keep his political work inside the party. Saleh also said that he will not return to the authority, “Authority for me is a finished topic… I will not run again for power, bequeath it or do anything regarding it. I will consider myself from this now ahead a chairman of the party that I established in 1982 and I will leave it only when a new leadership is elected.” In respect to opposition’s accusation of repressing the protests by using extreme force, he said this is not correct and accused the JMP of attacking camps of supporters of the GPC. ‘’The riots they created resulted in killing five and injuring 300. The security had not directions from the authority’’, Saleh said. In respect to attitudes of local and regional powers and international organizations, the President said ‘’first of all, I thank Russia for its position in the United Nations Security Council. It was a positive attitude, some western countries are investigating political powers who will take over the authority as the situation will eventually end to the opposition. The opposition will not take over power as the GPC has the majority. They refuse presidential and parliamentary elections because they know they do not have majority’’. ‘’We accepted to leave the authority before 2013 to save blood despite the fact that what is going on is a rebellion against the constitution. Some Arab and western countries are helping them in this issue. What is going on in the Middle East is a riot and agendas against these countries in the region’’. Regarding divisions in the streets and the position of Ali Mohsen, Saleh he that said Mohsen had escaped to the protests near the camp he leads and that songs and religious preaching as well as dancing, hustle and bustle have affected him. ‘’He thought the regime will step down and joined what is called a revolution. As part of the regime, he sought a shelter in the revolution’’, President Saleh added. Over what was described insult to woman, he said ‘’Yemeni woman is my sister, mother and daughter’’ and that his speech he delivered on woman did not include insult to woman but he condemned the Islah’s party’s contradicting positions over separations between girls and boys. The President concluded the interview by directing a message to the JMP to return to dialogue and reconciliation and put Yemen’s interests above their own. He called on them not to push young people to death. ‘’They are protecting themselves and afraid to go with young people… even Ali Mohsen is afraid and cannot go home for lunch’’.