Yemen Opposition Forms National Council

[pampango]

Source: New York Times

Seven months after demonstrators first took to the streets in Yemen calling for democracy, opposition leaders formed a national council on Wednesday to act as a government-in-waiting, a provocative step the government condemned even before it was announced.

The council consists of 143 members recruited from a broad array of tribal sheikhs, protest leaders, southern separatists, military commanders and former members of the governing party. It was created to unite a fractured opposition and reinvigorate an uprising that has ground to a virtual standstill. The council, which includes 11 women, plans to choose a president and a 20-member executive committee.

President Ali Abduallah Saleh, who has been in Saudi Arabia recovering from a bomb attack that left him gravely wounded, has insisted he will return and resume power. In anticipation of the opposition forming a national council, the government spokesman, Abdu al-Janadi, said last week in an online posting that such a move would amount to “a declaration of war.”

“This is an action that means to create a state within a state and create civil war in Yemen,” Mr. Janadi wrote.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/world/middleeast/18yemen.html?partner=rss&emc=rss