Tribal persuasions

Yemen's fuel troubles simmer down as a deal is done between tribal leaders and the president, reports Nasser Arrabyee from Sanaa

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Yemen's government has retracted its decision on fuel prices after tribesmen, not political parties, made successful negotiations with President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the presidential palace late Monday. Saleh met prominent tribal sheikhs from Sadah, the rebellion war-torn province, Al-Jawf and Marib, the oil-rich province, after violent protests swept the country leaving 50 dead and hundreds injured.

The price of diesel will be reduced to 35 rials, instead of 45 and that of petrol to 55 instead of 65 rials, sources who attended the meeting told Al-Ahram Weekly.

The tribesmen of Marib, 180 kilometres east of the capital, Sanaa, let the gas and petrol tankers go only one day before the meeting with Saleh. Previously they blocked the main road that links oil-rich Saffir to Sanaa. Earlier, the country's six main opposition parties, which played no role except for condemning both the riots and use of force by government against protesters, suspended a dialogue with the ruling People's General Congress (PGC), until the government recants its "unfair and unjust steps", in reference to the fuel price rise.

The parties, locally known as the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), called for immediate, neutral and fair investigation into what happened during the violent protests that killed civilians and security men. The PGC accused the JMP opposition parties of inciting violent protests, describing them as "helpless and bankrupt". A dialogue on political and economic issues was supposed to start between PGC and JMP (three Islamic parties including the largest one, Islah, and three nationalist, including the Yemeni Socialist Party, YSP), before protests erupted last week.

After the government has lifted subsidies on oil derivative, the opposition seems to see no point in any talk of dialogue. An official said it's now time to reach out to President Saleh, not the PGC.

"The dialogue was mainly for discussing the economic issue, but now the PGC government is done with this issue, it has decided to impoverish the people, and there is nothing left to speak about, we are left only with talking about the peaceful transfer of power, and this will be only with the president not with the PGC," Mohamed Al-Sabri, chairman of the Unionist Nasserist Political Circle, told the Weekly.

Some blamed the JMP parties for taking only the position of "lookers-on" in the violent protests that hit Yemen last week.

"Unfortunately, the opposition got satisfied with condemning the regime and left the rest for angels or Satan to complete. They did not organise demonstrations because of fear of repression, because the regime always gets provoked by any step taken by parties. The regime can make dialogue with rebel tribesmen in Sadah or with highway robbers in Marib but not with parties," Nabil Al-Sufi, a prominent member of the Islamic party, Islah, told the Weekly.

The YSP leading figure, Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Qader, said: "the suspension of dialogue was to express our dissatisfaction of the economic policies which led to more poverty and hunger." The political parties "would have organised peaceful demonstrations without any riots or violence, had the political arena been wider and allowed them, but it is not, so we preferred to express our views through parliament and our newspapers and statements," the socialist official, who was in charge of preparing for dialogue, told the Weekly.

But dialogue will remain something important especially after the lessons learnt from the recent violent protests, Qader added.

For his part, the spokesman of ruling PGC, Tareq Al-Shami, said, "the JMP parties are unable to provide alternatives for the interest of the nation, and if they have any, they will put them on the table of dialogue, but they are escaping from confronting the problem. As for us in PGC, we have taken the decision that will protect the national economy from collapsing, and we are responsible for that."

The political analyst and chairman of the Political Development Forum, Ali Saif Hussan, told the Weekly that, "for the time being we need the dialogue more than ever before, we need it for rescuing the economy, and for political reforms." The Prime Minister Abdul-Qader Bajammal warned of disaster if the step is not taken. "You will understand at the end that this is for your interest, if we do not take this step, our economy will break down," Bajammal said on official television.