Protesters reject Gulf exit plan

Hundreds of people demonstrate in Yemen's Ibb province, 190 km southwest of the capital Sanaa yesterday, as Yemen anti-regime protest movement rejected a proposal from mediating Gulf states that embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh should pass power to his deputy, an offer welcomed by the mainstream opposition.Photo: AFP

Yemen anti-regime protest movement rejected a proposal from mediating Gulf states that embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh should pass power to his deputy, an offer welcomed by the mainstream opposition.
"We are not concerned by any solution negotiated between the regime and the opposition that does not answer our main demand: the fall of the regime and its figures," said leading activist Adel al-Rabyi, from the Youth for Change coalition of protest groups that have led demonstrations across the country since late January.
Foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council urged Saleh on Sunday to step down and ensure a peaceful transition of power to his deputy, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.
Following a meeting in Riyadh, they also called for the formation of a national unity government led by the opposition.
"We do not accept the hijacking of our revolution," Rabyi told AFP, insisting that he spoke on behalf of all youth groups in Sanaa and other major cities hit by deadly protests.
Thousands of protesters headed yesterday from the University Square, dubbed as Change Square after protests, to the residence of Hadi, according to an AFP journalist.
"The people want to put the president on trial," they chanted.