Saleh agrees to form GCC deal-based national government

 Yemen's President Saleh has agreed to implement UNSC Resolution 2014 in full Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has agreed to entrust his deputy with forming a national unity government based on a Gulf-brokered power-transfer initiative, urging opposition leaders to implement a UN resolution, the state- run Saba news agency reported on Sunday.
"President Saleh has agreed to entrust his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi with forming the national unity government in accordance to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative," Saba quoted government spokesperson Abdu al-Janadi as saying.
"The Yemeni government resolves to implement the UN Security Council Resolution 2014 in full, and we call for the opposition leaders to end their weeks-long shuttle trip in Gulf countries and return to Sanaa to implement it," al-Janadi said.
The GCC deal, which was backed by the UN resolution on Oct. 21, stipulates Saleh hand over power to his deputy Hadi and resign in 30 days in return for immunity from prosecution. Hadi would then form an opposition-led national government and arrange presidential elections in 60 days.
However, Fathi al-Azab, spokesman for the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) claimed that "Saleh has told the visiting UN envoy to Yemen Jamal bin Omar that he wants to stay on as honorary president until a new president is elected in the proposed early elections."
Tarik al-Shami, spokesman for the ruling party General People's Congress (GPC), denied that Saleh has asked for new amendments in the deal.
"Neither President Saleh nor the GPC asked for such alleged amendments, all what we ask is the opposition leaders should come back to Sanaa to sign the GCC deal," al-Shami told Xinhua.
The rival parties last Thursday issued coincident official statements that the UN-backed GCC deal would be signed in the next few days.
Yemen’s army and tribal fighters killed nine suspected al-Qaeda militants overnight in a southern city where central government control has been weakened by months of political paralysis , residents and local officials said.
Five militants, one of them a Saudi, were killed in shelling and clashes on the northern edge of Zinjibar, which the Yemeni government said it had “liberated” from Islamist fighters in September, an official said.
The Saudi, named Naif al-Qahtani, was a senior member of Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), a group linked to al Qaeda, said the official. He had travelled to Zinjibar from a neighboring province to take part in the fighting.
Yemen’s south has been sliding towards lawlessness and deprivation whilst political wrangling over Saleh's fate goes on, unnerving oil-giant neighbor Saudi Arabia and Western powers.
Washington and Riyadh, both targets of foiled attacks by al-Qaeda’s regional Yemen-based wing, are worried that the upheaval and a growing security vacuum could give Islamist militants the space they need to thrive.
A local official said four militants were killed in another part of Zinjibar in clashes with the army and tribesmen who are fighting to take back towns and territory seized by Islamist fighters in recent months.
Despite regular government reports of gains against Islamist fighters in Yemen’s south, attacks on security checkpoints and officials have continued.
Yemen’s government says Ansar al-Sharia is the Yemeni wing of al-Qaeda. Some analysts say other local militant Islamist groups could be at work.
The impoverished Arab country has been rattled by 10-month-long upheaval, leaving thousands of people killed and injured since the eruption of protest in late January demanding an end to Saleh's 33- year rule.