Yemen former President Ali Abdullah Saleh has decried al-Harak's decision to boycott the NDC (National Dialogue Conference) after he himself agreed to break off his boycott and returned to the negotiating table following international pressure.
Following the GPC announcement it would oppose the southern issue resolution on account the 8+8 Committee stood against the principal of the GCC-brokered power transfer initiative, President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi had to give his party an ultimatum to save the NDC and prevent a complete political meltdown.
His efforts were subsequently met by al-Harak (Southern Secessionist Movement) refusal to cooperate.
While al-Harak representatives have agreed on principle to turn Yemen into a federation, they have rejected any proposal which does not provision for a binary federal system: South Yemen and North Yemen.
In essence southerners want to return to 1990 border demarcation, only rather than have two independent states, South Yemen and North Yemen would become two federal states; a compromise southerners have said they would consider making for the sake of peace and stability.
President Hadi has pushed for the establishment of 6 regions, aiming to dissolve the north-south divide through a new regional make up, something al-Harak representatives have warned they would never agree to.
With both parties refusing to make any concession, Yemen's international and regional partners fear this new political stand-off will degenerate and lead to further tensions and instability.
Angered by al-Harak's political stubbornness former President Saleh told TV channel Yemen Today, which is owned by his son, Gen. Ahmed Ali Saleh, “The establishment of a federal state based on two entities is treason, aimed at tearing the unity."