Yemen ruling party, opposition agree points for dialogue

Released on - Saturday,17 July , 2010 -21:06

Yemen's ruling General People's Congress and opposition parties on Saturday signed the minutes of an agreement to push for national dialogue in a move hailed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

"This is a positive step towards political detente... and to start a new phase," Saleh told reporters after the signing, and renewed a call he made in May to the opposition to form a national unity government.

The memorandum was signed with the opposition Common Forum which groups Al-Islah (Reform) Party, the main Islamist opposition, and the Yemeni Socialist Party, as well as other smaller factions. There were no other details.

"We are all in the same boat and we must sail together," Saleh said.

"There must be one leadership for this ship from all political parties and I said in my speech in May that we welcome a partnership with all the political parties in Yemen," Saleh said.

In May Saleh invited all political groups inside and outside the country to a "responsible national dialogue, within the framework of the constitutional institutions."

"According to this dialogue, it is possible to form a government of all the influential political parties represented in the parliament," he had said on the eve of the 20th anniversary or Yemen's unification.

Saleh said in May that the Yemeni Socialist Party which is agitating to re-establish south Yemen as an independent state, would be a principal partner in the political dialogue.

Other major opposition parties in parliament include the Islamist Al-Islah party, popular among tribesmen who form the backbone of Yemen's traditional society.

On Saturday the president also insisted that parliamentary elections should take place on time in April 2011, in line with an agreement struck in February 2009 between the opposition and Saleh's party.

The election was due to take place in April 2009 but lawmakers agreed to delay it by two years in order to restructure Yemen's political system, including an amendment of the constitution.