Yemen Opposition to Send Delegation to Riyadh

Yemen's parliamentary opposition will on Sunday send a delegation to Riyadh for "consultations" on a proposal by Gulf Arab states for the president's departure, opposition officials said.

"We were invited to Riyadh for consultations on Sunday on the terms of a Gulf Cooperation Council initiative on the president's departure," said Mohammed Salem Bassandaoua, who will head the opposition Common Forum delegation to the Saudi capital.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power since 1978, has since January faced protests calling for him to quit. More than 125 people have been killed in the protests.

Al-Arabiya television, a Saudi-owned and Dubai-based channel, reported late Saturday that Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal would have separate meetings in Riyadh on Sunday with Yemeni opposition and government delegations.

Prince Saud intends to discuss with the two delegations a GCC proposal for Saleh to transfer power to his vice president, and for the formation of an opposition-led unity government.

But the opposition has for the moment excluded "any form of meeting or negotiations with the government," said Bassandaoua, a former foreign minister.

"We will go to Riyadh on the condition that there is not any delegation or representation of the Sanaa government in the Saudi capital, to avoid giving the impression that there will be negotiations," he said.

"If there is any representative of the Saleh regime in Riyadh on Sunday, we will not send our delegation," added Yassin Saeed Noman, the president of the Common Forum and secretary general of the Yemen Socialist Party.

Other than the YSP, the Common Forum group consists of the influential Al-Islah Islamist party and other smaller parliamentary opposition groups.