Yemeni opposition refuses ruling party's call for dialogue

Yemeni opposition refuses ruling party's call for dialogue

SANAA, Sep. 8 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni oppositions on Thursday refused a compromise proposed by the ruling party which provided a three-month buffer period for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to transfer power based on a Gulf-brokered deal, the opposition's spokesman said.

Saleh's ruling party on Wednesday called for talks with the oppositions in a bid to set a mechanism for power transition based on a deal initiated by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

However, the spokesman of the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) Mohamed Qahtan told Xinhua that "we (JMP) have no idea on the ruling party's proposed mechanism. We still support the GCC initiative, but (there is) no dialogue with Saleh' s party until he signs it first."

Meanwhile, the oppositions on Thursday called on the Yemeni people to take part in massive protests after Friday prayers for peacefully toppling Saleh and his regime, opposition media said.

Thousands of anti-government protesters staged marches on Thursday in Yemen's major cities to show their anger to what they claimed "the U.S.-Saudi policies backing Ali Abdullah Saleh," witnesses said.

The protesters took to the streets of the capital Sanaa, Taiz, Dhamar, Ibb and Al-Bayda provinces to renew the demand for ousting the embattled president.

Saleh, who has confronted eight-month-long popular protests demanding an end to his 33-year rule, is still in Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation from wounds he sustained in a shelling attack on his presidential compound in Sanaa on June 3.

The almost daily protest triggered growing tension between government troops and defected army and deterioration of security situation, which caused severe fuel and power shortages and mostly paralyzed economic activities in the impoverished Arab country.