Solution for Yemeni crisis goes on despite difficulties

By Nasser Arrabyee Yemenis are continuing the implementation of an agreed solution to end their one-year long political crisis, despite big obstacles. One of the most important step taken this week was formation a military and security committee that will restore the stability of the country. Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi is the chairman of this committee which is made of 14 military and security commanders, 7 from opposition and 7 from the ruling party. The regional and international support for solution was obviously behind the continuation of achieving progress despite the tremendous difficulties. The 34-member opposition-chaired government of national consensus is supposed to start working from the beginning of next week. The opposition, which includes the six main opposition parties, have agreed to take 17 portfolios including the ministry of interior, ministry finance,and ministry of information, which means also half of the most important six ministries. The ruling party, still chaired by the outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh, took the other 17 portfolios including the ministry of defense, the ministry of oil, and the ministry of foreign affairs. According to the GCC and its implementation plan signed by all parties on November 23, 2011 in the Saudi capital Riyadh, the opposition divided the 34 cabinet portfolios into two lists and the ruling party chose one of them, that's the one which included the ministries of defense, foreign affairs,and oil. Vice President Hadi must be the candidate of both the opposition and the ruling party in early presidential elections to be held on February 21, 2012. Independent candidates will be allowed to compete Mr Hadi. After this election, president Saleh will leave power, but would remain as chairman of his party. On Wednesday, December 7, 2011, the ruling party would announce Mr Hadi , who is now the secretary general of the party, as its candidate for the February presidential elections, according to the mechanism plan of the Saudi-led Gulf initiative for power transfer. In the same meeting of the ruling party on Wednesday,the outgoing prime minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar, will be elected as a secretary general of the ruling party instead of the current one, Mr Hadi, according to senior officials who are participate in the meeting. THE SITUATION ON THE GROUND The opposition armed tribesmen and government troops started Tuesday December 6 to withdraw from the city of Taiz after four days of fierce fighting in which dozens were killed and injured from both sides. The ministry of interior said Tuesday in an official statement that 110 defected soldiers and officers were arrested in the city of Taiz including their commander Sadek Sarhan. Earlier this year, the defected general Ali Mohsen, sent the military commander Sarhan to fight against government troops in the city of Taiz. The arrest of Sarhan and his soldiers came after attempts from western diplomats in Sanaa to convince general Muhsen to bring Sarhan back to Sanaa. Yemenis and western monitors are now in the central southern city of Taiz to see who violate the agreements and kill civilians. In Saada, the north of the north, more than 30 people were killed and dozens others injured in fierce fighting between Al Houthi Shiite followers and the Sunni Salafi group based in the same province of Saada over the last two weeks. The top leader of Shiite,Abdul Malik Al Houthi,vowed in a speech delivered on Tuesday December 6, 2011, on the annual Shiite occasion of Ashura, he vowed to continue fighting against what he called the "American and Israeli conspiracy". Al Hourhi refused the GCC initiative to solve the Yemeni political crisis saying it was made by the American Ambassodor in Sanaa. In a phone interview with the spokesman of the Salafi group in Saada, Abu Ismail, who said Al Houthi is exploiting the absence of the government in Saada and launch sectarian war against the Sunnis. Abu Ismail told the Weekly that two American, one French, one Russian, one Malaysian and two Indonesian Salafi students in Dammaj Salafi school in Saada were killed in the ongoing battles between the Al Houthi Shiite fighters and Sunni Salafi fighters. Al Hourhi fighters imposed a siege on about 15,000 people including about 6,000 students of the Salafi school in Dammag area about 50 days ago. Moreover, Al Qaeda in Lawdar in the southern province of Abyan, assassinated this week, the most active tribal leader in Lawdar, Tafik Al Junaidi who formed popular anti-Qaeda committees in the Al Qaeda-stricken areas in the south. And militants of the Islamist opposition party, Islah , (brotherhood) assassinated a senior ruling party official who was the deputy governor of Dhammar province, Abdul Kareem Thafan, while he was getting out from his office on Saturday December 3, 2011. Two of Thafan's bodyguards were also killed in the operation which sparked a lot of anger and fear of more similar and retaliatory acts.