Yemen President To Sack Govt, Reduce Fuel Prices

Yemeni President ABD Rabbuh Mansur Hadi on Tuesday decided to sack the government before drawing up a new national unity government within one week.



At a meeting with Yemeni political forces, President Hadi also decided to reduce fuel prices, which – along with the dismissal of the government – had been a core demand of tens of thousands of Shiite Houthi demonstrators who have been staging rallies across the country since last week.



Yemeni officials who attended the meeting said the new measures represented a final attempt by the president to resolve the country's escalating political crises, which had recently propelled thousands of Houthis onto the streets.



Hadi decided to reduce the price of 20 liters of gasoline from $18.60 to $16.30, one meeting attendee said on condition of anonymity.



He added that the president had also called on the Shiite Houthi group – along with southern separatist groups – to take part in a new government of national unity.



The new initiative, however, gives the president the right to appoint the heads of "strategic" ministries, which include the ministries of defense, foreign affairs and the interior, the source said.



He added that Hadi's initiative called for political forces taking part in the formation of the new government to recommend two nominees for each ministry, from whom the president and prime minister would choose one each for the ministerial post.



The source added that the initiative also called on the Houthis to withdraw their fighters from the northern Amran province and halt all armed confrontations with the army in the northern Al-Jawf province.



"This initiative does not come out of weakness or with the aim of deceiving anybody," President Hadi had said at the meeting, according to the source. "It is made only for Yemen's best interests."



The initiative comes only one day after Houthi activists blocked main roads in capital Sanaa, vowing to further escalate their "revolutionary action."



The Houthis have taken to the streets since August 14 to demand the dismissal of the government and the reversal of a recent government decision to slash fuel subsidies.



In July, the government raised the price of gasoline by 75 percent and diesel fuel by 90 percent as part of a plan to reduce fuel subsidies.



The Yemeni president, meanwhile, briefed the ambassadors of the ten states that sponsored the Gulf initiative, which had called on ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in 2012, about his new initiative aimed at resolving his country's current crisis.



During a meeting with these ambassadors, Hadi said the initiative represented a safe exit from Yemen's political crisis.



By Mohamed al-Samei



englishnews@aa.com.tr



www.aa.com.tr/en - Sana