SANA'A: A Gulf Arab peace plan presented in Sana'a Thursday calls for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to transfer power over three months, an official said, the latest effort to stop Yemen's descent into further violence and chaos. Saleh's ruling party said it would respond within 24 hours, but aides to Saleh - who sounded defiant in a speech Wednesday - said he seemed poised to accept the initiative. Gulf Arab and Western states are trying to negotiate an orderly transition after three months of protests have brought his 32-year rule to the brink of collapse in a country where Al-Qaeda militants have re-established themselves in recent years. A Yemeni government official told Reuters the revised GCC proposal would see Saleh announce his resignation to parliament one month after signing an agreement, then hand over power to his vice president. Saleh would also appoint an opposition leader to run a new cabinet that would prepare for presidential elections two months later. The proposal envisages protesters winding down their activities and offers immunity from prosecution to Saleh, his family and aides - defying street activists' demands. “We welcome this new initiative and we will deal with it positively,” an official said after Saleh met Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General Abdullatif Al-Zayani. According to the Gulf plan, the new unity cabinet would consist of members of the current ruling party (50 percent), members of the opposition coalition (40 percent), and other political groups (10 percent). This might help Saleh supporters keep a majority, as the 10 percent from other groups might include recently resigned ruling party members. The proposal also grants Saleh, his family and close aides immunity from legal prosecution, the Yemeni official said. Protesters have insisted on the right to prosecute Saleh but the opposition has given no clear view as to what it would accept. Members of the opposition coalition, who also met Zayani and say they are still studying the proposal, said they were wary of loopholes that could keep Saleh in office. The ending of protests would be a major sticking point. “That condition will be difficult to achieve,” one opposition leader said. He said the opposition did not fully control the hundreds of thousands of people, many of them youth activists, who have taken to the streets. The opposition leader said Saleh could use his ruling party's parliamentary majority to avoid standing down. Under Yemeni law, two-thirds of the parliament must accept a president's resignation. “There need to be guarantees ... because the ruling party could reject his resignation, and then we would not get Saleh's departure,” he said. Saleh has said he will not seek re-election when his term ends in 2013, and later promised to stand down this year after organizing parliamentary and presidential elections.
