Yemeni President approves participants list for dialogue talks

565 participants will attend the conference, overseen by international bodies Sanaa – Ali Rabea Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has finalised preparation for the country’s upcoming National Dialogue Conference (NDC), signing off on a 565-strong list of names for participants in landmark transition talks on March 18.
Hadi, who will chair the conference, heads a list of prominent figures in Yemeni politics.
The list was previously approved by a committee tasked with preparing for dialogue talks.
Regional and international organisations will see over the conference, which aims to complete Yemen’s political transition in line with settlement plans proposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 2011.
GCC proposals originally aimed at putting an end to violent protests which ousted former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Top officials from the GCC, United Nations and Arab League are expected to attend the opening session of the NDC.
However, some high-profile names have been left off Hadi’s list.
Exiled southern opposition leaders, including Ali Salem al-Beidh (who currently lives in Beirut) will not be invited to attend talks.
Other southern figures Haydar al-Attas, Ali Nasser Mohammed and Abdelrahman al-Jaffri will also not attend.
GCC chief Abdullatif al-Zayani and UN envoy Jamal Benomar revealed they had “failed to persuade” separatist politicians, who demand the secession of South Yemen, to join the NDC.
Former President Saleh, former military commander Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and prominent Islamic leader and preacher Abdel Meguid al-Zindani have all been exluded from the NDC participants roster.
Al-Zindani was reportedly left off due to alleged links to terrorist organisations in the region.
Hadi’s party, the General People’s Congress (GPC), has received the top number of seats at the NDC, with 115 participants.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Reform Party received 50, the Socialist Party 37 and the Shiite Houthis group 30.
Northern and southern groups have been allocated an equal number of seats, presumably as a peace offering to quell growing unrest in southern urban centres calling for the scrapping of a 1994 agreement which unified North and South Yemen.