Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has moved a step closer to handing power to his deputy by accepting a U.N. formula to ease a transition and end an uprising against his rule, the EU envoy to Yemen was quoted by the state news agency SABA as saying. Heavy fighting between Saleh's supporters and opponents spread through Yemen's third-largest city Taiz early on Wednesday with one person reported killed and ten wounded. Saleh, 69 and in power for 33 years, has three times agreed to negotiated plans to give up power only to pull out at the last minute, but has now accepted a U.N. transition plan, the European Union resident ambassador was quoted by SABA as saying. “We are convinced that we are on the verge of reaching an agreement soon and above all else the matter calls for political commitment. We hope that Eid al-Adha will be an occasion to announce to Yemen and world that Yemen has passed towards a new stage,” Michele Cervone d'Urso told SABA. D'Urso asked the opposition to return home before the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday next week, so that a deal could be finalised. There was no immediate Yemeni government comment on d'Urso's remarks. But there have been fresh indications of progress. Deputy information minister Abdo al-Janadi said on Sunday the ruling party was close to announcing Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi would succeed Saleh. He also said Hadi would return from the United States on Thursday to wind up dialogue with the opposition, adding, “He will sign the Gulf initiative and the mechanism for its operation in the near future”. U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar visited Yemen in September to try to devise a way of implementing a Gulf-brokered power handover and overcome political deadlock that has paralysed the Arabian Peninsula state and pushed it to the verge of civil war. But he left empty-handed after two weeks of shuttle diplomacy between the opposition and the ruling party. Benomar's plan requires Saleh to shift power to Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi ahead of an early presidential election, which would be held within two to three months. In the meantime, the opposition would form a government with the ruling party and a body would be set up to restructure the armed forces.
