Yemen Peace Deal Fails As Saleh Backs Out

10:37am UK, Monday May 23, 2011

Ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council have suspended mediation efforts in Yemen, after the country's president refused to sign a transition deal for him to leave office.

To view this content you need Flash and Javascript enabled in your browser.

Please download Flash from the Adobe download website.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh said al Qaeda militants could fill a political and security vacuum if he is forced out and blamed the opposition for the deal's collapse.

Yemeni state TV showed several top figures from the country's ruling party signing the accord as the president and American ambassador watched.

But Mr Saleh said he would not add his signature unless opposition leaders came to the palace and signed it as well in public, not "behind closed doors".

"If (Yemen) is engulfed in a civil war, they will be responsible for it and the bloodshed," he declared in a televised speech.

The deal would have given Mr Saleh immunity from prosecution, ensuring a dignified exit after nearly 33 years in power.

If he had signed it, he would have become the third Arab leader after the Egyptian and Tunisian presidents to be ousted by popular protests since January.

Hundreds of thousands of people have defied a bloody crackdown and called for the president to quit.

Protesters in Sanaa

Anti-government protesters in the capital Sanaa

The US and Saudi Arabia, both targets of foiled attacks by al Qaeda's Yemen-based regional wing, are keen to end the Yemeni stalemate and avert the spread of anarchy that could give the militant group more room to operate.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) bloc of Yemen's oil-rich neighbours and Western powers have exerted intense diplomatic pressure to secure a deal and end the violence in which more than 170 Yemeni demonstrators have been killed.

Last week President Barack Obama said that Mr Saleh needed to "follow through on his commitment to transfer power". European diplomats have also urged both sides to agree on a deal.

In a move likely to infuriate the Gulf and Western countries, gunmen loyal to Mr Saleh surrounded the United Arab Emirates embassy on Sunday trapping inside Gulf and Western ambassadors working to resolve the crisis.

The UAE urged Yemeni authorities to secure its embassy, and the diplomats were later allowed to leave.