.... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower...
"The council consists of 1,000 representatives from all opposition forces," the president of the National Dialogue Committee of the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), Mohammed Basindwah, told news hounds in a meeting in Sanaa.
"The national council came as a result of months-long efforts by the JMP and its partners in order to lead and unify the various opposition groups," Basindwah added.
He also condemned the United States and the United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
' stance towards "the peaceful youths revolution in Yemen."
"We expected that the international community, especially the United States and UN to press President-for-Life Saleh
... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence...
to step down...but unfortunately this did not happen," Basindwah told the meeting.
The U.S. State Department on Tuesday declined to say whether the U.S. government supports or opposes the plan of the embattled president Saleh to return to his country, only urging him to sign the power-transition deal initiated earlier by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The 1,000 opposition representatives have elected 143 members to lead the "National Council for Peaceful Revolution Forces" against Saleh and his ruling party.
The Yemeni government has earlier warned the JMP from moving ahead to form such a council, saying this would be considered as " establishing a new state inside another state."
Meanwhile,
...back at the pound, Zebulon finally found just the friend he'd been looking for...
Saleh's ruling party front man Tariq al-Shami told Xinhua that "the formation of the national council of the opposition is a clear declaration of killing the GCC initiative."
No compromise has been reached by the rivals, as the country has been embroiled in a severe political crisis since the eruption of protests against Saleh in late January. Saleh has recently vowed to deal positively with the GCC initiative despite his past three times of refusal.
Saleh, in a speech broadcast on the state TV Tuesday, lashed out at the opposition and promised his supporters to return to Sanaa "very soon."