Sanaa, May 20: Yemen’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh will not sign a power transition deal with the opposition, a presidential aide says.
The unnamed official said on Thursday that reports that Saleh would sign the deal on Sunday were baseless, Xinhua reported.
Earlier, Saleh’s spokesman Ahmed al-Sufi said the president planned to sign the agreement to cede power.
A coalition of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC) countries tried to mediate a deal for Saleh to leave power in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
Meanwhile, a government official said, “There is no confirmed information that Saleh would ink the [P]GCC-brokered deal on Sunday.”
Saleh’s refusal also prompted [P]GCC mediator Abdulatif al-Zayani to leave Sana’a on Wednesday evening.
Opposition spokesman Mohammed al-Sabri accused the Yemeni president of “playing games with time.”
On Thursday, demonstrators once again took to the streets of the capital Sana’a and several other major cities.
The protesters demand Saleh’s trial for crimes he has committed against his own people.
Saleh who has been in power since 1978, has repeatedly said that he will stay in power until the end of his term. His current term of office ends in 2013.
——–Agencies