SANA'A: Yemen's opposition Saturday signed a Gulf-brokered accord for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to cede power, opposition sources said, with the embattled leader expected to follow suit Sunday. Saleh, who would quit within 30 days under the agreement, earlier slammed it as a “coup” that will aid Al-Qaeda but said he reluctantly accepted it for the sake of the nation. Since late January, security forces have mounted a bloody crackdown on anti-regime protests, leaving at least 180 people dead, according to a toll compiled from reports by activists and medics. Three students were shot and wounded Saturday in Hodeida, west of Sana'a, during clashes between security forces and Hodeida University students on an anti-regime protest, witnesses and medics said. Various opposition leaders declined to publicly confirm the Saturday signing, saying an announcement would be made Sunday. One opposition official said on condition of anonymity that opposition leaders met Saturday with the head of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which brokered the deal, along with the US, British, EU and United Arab Emirates ambassadors. He aid “the important thing is that the president sign” the agreement. A spokesman for Saleh's ruling General People's Congress, meanwhile, said the president would sign Sunday. “Saleh will sign the document in his capacity as president of the republic and the GPC,” said Tareq Al-Shami. GPC Secretary General Sultan Al-Barakani also confirmed that the government side would sign Sunday, while adding that the opposition had declined to sign in the presidential palace. Meanwhile, Saleh termed the agreement a “coup” and warned it could bolster Al-Qaeda. “The initiative is in fact purely a coup operation but we will deal positively with it for the sake of the motherland,” Saleh said. He warned the USand the EU that Al-Qaeda would benefit. “The departure of the regime ... means the departure of Yemeni unity and the republic,” he said. Saleh has been a key US ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based franchise, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has claimed attacks against US and other Western interests.
