Government in Yemen Agrees to Talk Transition

The governing party, the General People’s Congress, known as the G.P.C., gave its official consent even though a coalition of opposition political leaders balked on Monday over one of the proposal’s conditions, that protests end immediately.

“The G.P.C. approved,” said Mohamed Al-Tayeb, a prominent member of the governing party. “Both sides will go on Monday to Riyadh.”

Mr. Tayeb said the parties had received an invitation from the six-nation Persian Gulf bloc that had formulated and promoted the proposal for the transition of power from President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

“So far, so good,” Mr. Tayeb said, adding that the governing party and the opposition had each sent letters to the regional bloc, called the Gulf Cooperation Council, agreeing to the initiative.

But a leading member of Yemen’s opposition coalition said that the opposition had given only oral approval to the proposal and that it would not send a delegation to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, until Mr. Saleh formally signed the plan for the transition. Mr. Saleh will not go to Riyadh.

“First, the president, he should officially sign the agreement,” the opposition leader, Mohammed Abdulmalik al-Mutawakil, said. “Because he is not going to Saudi Arabia, therefore he has to sign it before we leave.”

The back and forth between the two sides has been a trademark of the political impasse over the past few months in Yemen, as tens of thousands of protesters in cities throughout the country have called for Mr. Saleh’s ouster.

Under the proposal, once both sides sign the agreement, a national unity government will be formed and the opposition will select a prime minister, who will govern with Mr. Saleh for 30 days, at which point the president will step down.

In another development on Tuesday, a protester was shot to death in the central city of Taiz, according to a local doctor. Taiz has endured significant violence between security forces and protesters over the past month. A YouTube video posted online Tuesday from Taiz showed a protester being hit in the head by live gunfire from what appeared to be a military vehicle.