Vice president: Yemen ready to defend Saleh against potential UN resolution

Yemeni Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said Thursday his government is ready to defend constitutional rights of the country's President Ali Abdullah Saleh against any potential UN resolution, two officials familiar with the situation told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Hadi's remarks came ahead of discussions over the crisis of Yemen at the UN Security Council, which scheduled for the coming days to discuss a resolution to force the embattled president to implement a power-transition deal and step down. The government and the ruling party are ready to defend President Saleh against any potential UN action and to confront any resolution targeting his constitutional rights of leading the country until 2013, Hadi said at a close-door meeting of high- ranking government officials and leaders of the ruling General People's Congress (GPC) on Thursday, according to the officials. The state-run Saba news agency reported that Hadi discussed Thursday with leaders and members of the ruling party on the latest development over the Yemeni issue by the UN Security Council. The news agency said that Hadi and the GPC leaders will meet on Saturday for further discussions in order to prepare a decisive position towards "any UN action on Yemen." The officials also told Xinhua that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) chief, Abdullatif al-Zayani, is scheduled to arrive in Sanaa on Saturday at the invitation of the Yemeni government to resume efforts of resolving the long-running political standoff between the ruling party and the oppositions. On Wednesday, the government urged the Security Council to deal with Yemen's political crisis through an appropriate solution, rather than adopting resolutions that might "complicate the situation," according to Saba, which quoted Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qerbi as saying that his government "is still clinging to the Gulf initiative for resolving the impasse." The GCC deal, which was initiated in April and signed by the opposition in May, stipulated Saleh step down in 30 days and hand over power to his deputy, who will then form an opposition-led national government and arrange presidential elections in 60 days.