A UN envoy returned to Yemen Thursday to renew efforts to persuade President Ali Abdullah Saleh to quit under a Gulf-brokered plan to halt months of unrest, which flared again in the city of Taiz where security forces fired on protesters. A Reuters witness said one person was killed and eight were wounded in the shooting in Taiz, Yemen's commercial capital, some 200 km (120 miles) south of Sanaa, after demonstrators had called for Saleh to be put on trial. Officials said the UN envoy, Jamal Benomar, would meet Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and opposition leaders to try to clinch the deal devised by Yemen's rich Gulf neighbors to end nine months of protests against Saleh's 33-year rule. “I hope this will be an opportunity to solve the issues between the political factions in Yemen,” Benomar told state news agency Saba when he arrived in the capital Sana'a. In an interview posted on opposition website al-Sahwa, British Ambassador John Wilks said it was time for Saleh to fulfill his pledge to leave office: “The important thing is we need actions rather than words to complete the process,” he said, adding that 90 percent of the disagreements between the opposition and Saleh's ruling party had been resolved. Saleh has three times agreed to the Gulf plan only to pull out of signing at the very last minute.
