Security Council Meeting on Yemen Postponed

A United Nations Security Council meeting on Yemen scheduled for Monday has been postponed for a week, the world body's senior envoy to the Arabian Peninsula country told AFP on Sunday.

"The Security Council meeting was postponed to November 28 at the request of the protagonists" of the Yemeni crisis, said U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar, who has been in Sanaa since last week for talks on ending 10 months of political deadlock and bloodshed.

The 15-member council unanimously passed Resolution 2014 on October 21 condemning the government crackdown on the mass anti-government protest movement that has swept the country.

It also called on embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh to sign a Gulf Cooperation Council plan which calls for an end to his 33-year-rule in return for immunity from prosecution.

Saleh has so far refused to sign the agreement despite violence which has seen hundreds killed and thousands wounded.

Benomar returned to Sanaa on November 10 for yet another attempt to persuade Saleh and his opponents to end the crisis and to get him to sign the Gulf transition plan that calls on him to hand power over to his deputy, Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi.

Benomar is expected to submit a report to the U.N. Security Council on his return to New York.

The parliamentary Common Forum opposition is leading the political front of the protest which is also backed by the dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and strong tribes.

Last week, diplomats said the Security Council would meet Monday to discuss Saleh's refusal to step down, as well as the increased violence which the international community fears will escalate into a full-scale civil war.