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
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