Saleh, in Saudi Arabia recovering from a June assassination
attempt, has defied months of mass protests against his 33-year rule and
confounded international efforts to solve the crisis by repeatedly backtracking
on the deal.
“A legal team has left for Riyadh ... to meet the president
and complete the constitutional manner of President Saleh handing his powers as
head of state to his deputy,” the ruling party official told Reuters.
The move came after the party on Wednesday proposed changes
to the power transfer deal to give Saleh 90 days instead of 30 to leave power
once he signs it.
An official from an opposition coalition told Reuters
opponents would continue to step up protests, apparently wary that Saleh would
again reject the plan. He has already backed out of signing it at the last
minute three times.
“Our position is clear: peaceful escalation (of protests),”
said Houria Mashour, adding that the opposition had already signed the plan and
continued to support it.
Last month, Saleh gave the green light for his General
People’s Congress party to amend the plan brokered by Yemen’s Gulf Arab
neighbors.
Amendments approved by Saleh’s party would have him transfer
his powers to his Vice President Abbd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after signing the deal
and gives him three months to formally step down, as opposed to 30 days
previously.
After Saleh leaves, elections would be held and the
opposition would form an interim unity government for a two-year transition
period, retaining Hadi as interim president.
The government would use the time to draft a new
constitution and hold a dialogue with insurgent groups such as rebels in the
north and southern separatists.
The new plan also requires a restructuring of the military
within three months of Saleh signing the deal. Saleh’s family dominates the
armed forces’ high command. His son, Ahmed Ali Saleh, who the opposition
worries is being groomed to succeed him, heads the elite Republican Guard.
Away from the negotiating table, violence has raged on for
weeks in the south where fighters believed to belong to Al-Qaeda have seized at
least three towns.
Tens of thousands have fled the fighting area in recent
months as the army tries to regain control of lost ground.
Opponents of Saleh accuse him of exaggerating the threat of
al Qaeda and even encouraging militancy to scare Washington and Riyadh into
backing him to avoid a breakdown into anarchy.
