UN Security Council to vote on Yemen violence

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council will vote as early as the end of the week to condemn the violence in Yemen, where the situation is going from bad to worse, a senior western diplomat said Wednesday.

A draft resolution was circulated among the council’s 15 members Tuesday evening. It should be discussed Wednesday at the level of experts and then submitted to a vote at the end of this week or early next week, the diplomat said. The 15 council members have no major objections to the draft.

“I wouldn’t expect that there will be a major problem,” the diplomat said.

Despite months of protests and mounting international and regional pressure, Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh, in power for 33 years and accused of corruption and nepotism, has refused to step down. He has rejected a plan drawn up by the Gulf monarchies for a peaceful transfer of power. At least 861 people have been killed and 25,000 wounded since the start of the protests, according to a letter sent to the United Nations in early October by the Yemeni youth movement. AFP