In the presence of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen signed here Wednesday evening the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative to resolve the Yemeni crisis. Representatives of the Yemeni government and the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) also singed the executive mechanism of the initiative. Under the agreement, signed with the Yemeni opposition at the ceremony hosted by King Abdullah, President Saleh transferred his powers to his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, ahead of an early election. In return he will receive immunity from prosecution. Hadi is to form a new government with the opposition and call an early presidential election within three months. Saleh will keep his title until a successor is elected. “I declare the turning of a new page in the history of Yemen,” said King Abdullah in a brief statement before the signing ceremony, also attended by Crown Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior. The King said: “Freedom in all of its forms cannot survive without accountability. If they diverge, the result is chaos in a labyrinth whose extent is known only to Almighty Allah. This cannot be realized except by holding steady to the saying of Almighty Allah: “Fall into no disputes, lest ye lose heart and your power depart.” Let not the past carry you into the depths of darkness, and remember the words of Allah: “Allah forgives what is past: for repetition Allah will exact from him the penalty. For Allah is Exalted, Lord of Retribution.” King Abdullah said: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will remain your home as it always has been. It will continue to offer its support. This entails from you to face the coming challenges with wisdom, truthfulness, and transparency. Your path towards this end must be through patience and hard work. Without this, there is no hope for achieving your aspirations, ambitions and noble goals. Finally, I say this, and call upon you to hold steady to the words of Almighty Allah: “Fulfill the promise: surely (every) promise shall be questioned about.” President Saleh urged Saudi Arabia and members of the UN Security Council to ensure the implementation of the GCC-brokered accord. “We aspire with confidence to the brothers in Saudi Arabia ... to review, help and oversee the implementation of the accord and the operational mechanism,” he said. “This disagreement for the last 10 months has had a big impact on Yemen in the realms of culture, development, politics, which led to a threat to national unity and destroyed what has been built in past years,” he said. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in New York that Saleh told him in a telephone conversation Tuesday that he intended to “come to New York to take medical treatment immediately after signing this agreement”. __
