CNN news 2011-04-26
BEN TINKER, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Hey there, everyone. Happy Monday, and thanks for tuning in to CNN Student News. I'm Ben Tinker, filling in today
for Carl Azuz, who's got the day off. As we kick off the last week of April, we're going to get things started today in the Middle East.TINKER: There's a deal being discussed in the nation of Yemen that would remove that country's president from power. That's something protesters have been pushing for weeks. They've been marching through the streets, demonstrating. And in several cases, those demonstrations have turned violent, with fighting between protesters and security forces.
The protests are centered around this man: President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who's been in power for more than 30 years. This deal, which was put together by a group of countries in that region, says that President Saleh has to step down within 30 days. It also gives him and anyone who served in his government complete immunity from prosecution.
Thousands of Yemeni people are angry at the deal, especially because it offers immunity to Saleh. They also want him to step down immediately. But as of Sunday afternoon, President Saleh had not signed the deal, and government representatives insist he won't unless the opposition groups agree to it.
TINKER: From Yemen, we move west to the North African country of Libya and the city of Misrata. The battle to control that city has gone on now for seven weeks. Hundreds of people have been killed in the fighting between Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces and the rebels who want him out of power. Over the weekend, Libyan officials said they stopped their operations in Misrata, but a rebel spokesman calls that a flat-out lie.
CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson, who's been covering the conflict in Libya, explains how we got to this point and what some of the potential outcomes might be.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Libya's had Moammar Gadhafi leading the country for almost 42 years, and there's been a push to see democratic change there. Although Libya is on Tunisia's borders, the revolution in Tunisia really came to its initial conclusion with the ouster of President Ben Ali, who took exile in Saudi Arabia. That really sparked the revolution that then took place in Egypt, on the other side of Libya. So really, it was these two events, on both sides of Libya, that then gave the confidence to the opposition.
People want democracy. And people want the chance, now, to choose their own political leaders; to have political parties; in some cases, to have a voice in their own futures. It went from being a sort of an "unarmed civilian against government" situation that we saw in Tunisia and Egypt, into more of an armed rebel revolt against the government, which is where it is today. You have the rebels in Benghazi to the east. You have Gadhafi in his seat of power and with the support of a lot of the principle tribes of the country in Tripoli. And you have a siege around the town of Misrata, where rebels are surrounded by government forces and are being shelled.
It's reaching a stalemate of sorts, but behind the scenes, there are political back channel talks that are going on. The foreign minister has talked about the possibility of an interim solution, being an interim government that would last for six months before elections. But at the same time, Britain, France and Italy are talking about sending advisers for the rebels, which potentially will stiffen positions, stiffen the Libyan government's position, and make it harder, potentially, to reach any kind of a deal.
Two potential futures: one is that there is a cease-fire, troops on the ground to monitor a cease-fire, an interim government and, ultimately, elections. There's been a lot of blood-letting so far; it's going to be hard to walk away from this situation right now without further bloodshed. The other scenario is that both sides dig in deeper, refuse to negotiate, and there becomes a much wider-spread civil war in the country.