The Yemeni opposition is confident that Russia will support the UN Security Council resolution on Yemen as it “reflects the people’s striving for change and a peaceful solution to the conflict,” top Yemeni opposition figures said on Friday.
Salem Mohammed Bassindwa, a leader of the opposition movement For Joint Actions, who is heading a delegation of Yemeni top opposition figures in Russia, said that they had met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who “fully supported the Yemeni opposition’s stance” on the peaceful transition of power in the country that has been gripped by mass anti-government rallies since February.
Bassindwa said that all the members of the delegation were confident that “Russia will not veto the UN resolution on Yemen.”
“We hope that the international community, including Russia as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, will support us,” another Yemeni politician, the secretary general of the Congregation for Reform opposition party, Abdul Wahab al-Ansi, said.
Later on Friday, the UN Security Council is expected to vote on a resolution condemning the escalating violence between President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s supporters and protesters.
“As you know, the UN Security Council is expected to vote on the draft resolution on Yemen, and we hope that this document… will match the Yemeni people’s expectations,” Bassindwa said at a press conference in Moscow.
Bassindwa said that Saleh continiously denies and then again accepts a plan proposed seven months ago by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which envisages that Saleh would leave office within 30 days after signing an agreement and handing power to the vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution for him and the members of his family.
“The regime theoretically agrees with this plan, but practically violates it, using violence against unarmed demonstrators,” Bassindwa said.
The opposition leader also said that President Saleh is the only one who is hindering a peaceful solution to the Yemeni conflict.
