Almotamar.net - Assistant Secretary General of the ruling party in Yemen , he General People’s Congress (GPC) , Dr Ahmed Ubeid Bin Daghr has said February 2009 agreement constituted a foundation for dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition parties represented in the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP)

He renewed intention of the GPC of holding the upcoming parliamentary elections next April. Bin Daghr considered the major opposition parties non-interaction with the recent call of President Ali Abdullah Saleh for the formation of a national unity government caused the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) miss the opportunity of returning to government anew.

Bin Daghr pointed out the existence of external hostile feeding problems in some areas of the southern provinces and exploited the circumstances o the economic and social situation and have tried using some difficulties for calling for secession, indicating as well to the existence of other political ambitions which Bin Daghr believes they receive encouragement from some countries.

In an interview to the Emirates Al-Khaleej newspaper published in its last Sunday issue the GPC Assistant Secretary General accused the former vice president Ali Salem al-Biedh of standing behind feeding problems in some areas of the southern provinces.

In response to whether the challenges currently facing Yemen and whether they pose a threat to future of Yemen, Dr Bin Daghr said the political leadership is aware of what is happening in the country pointing out that the problems of Saada, the situations in the south and al-Qaeda organisation, if they were in another country maybe they would have destroyed it. He confirmed the people sticking to the unity, the political system and their right to a better life.

He said if the Houthis continued in their stand and the Movement, the first beneficiary movement would be the al-Qaeda organization, “Therefore we tell the international community it has to assist us for coming out of these crises, indicting that a large part of the problems of Saada and the south is economic and developmental. He made it clear that Yemen has a large amount of unemployment and there is a million of African emigrants and these are factors affected the level of the economic performance of the state and the living standard of the people and the al-Qaeda exploited that situation and established cells for it.”

On the concept of a previous project of Bin Daghr related to federalism the GPC leading member made it clear, “I talked about federalism at different circumstances and in fact I was proposing the idea on the YSP and the problem at that time was that the YSP did not have a political vision on the entire situation. “The party them has ideas on between reforming the course of the unity and other ambiguous ones on democracy and human rights, Bin Daghr added.

He said he did not then submit the idea of federation between two parts because “realized it would be the first step towards secession but I submitted the idea of federation of a group of regions.”

He said the idea he was submitting at that time was almost a local rule wit full powers making the provinces as regions granted broader authorities

Dr Bin Daghr said now the GPC is advancing towards a local rule with broad powers and is achieving tangible step in this direction, “Therefore I support my party the GPC and President Ali Abdullah Saleh

He has affirmed his rejection of the idea of federation between the two parts of the country, indicating that the call for two regions would encourage the idea of southernism. There is no identity in the country except the Yemeni identity