Southern leaders met in Cairo on Friday to discuss the participation in the national dialogue scheduled for the late of the current month, but uncertainty is still surrounding the outcome of the meeting.
Political sources in Cairo said the southern leaders including the former southern president Ali Nasser Mohammad and the former primier Haidar Al-Atass.
Jamal Benomar, the UN Envoy to Yemen, attended the meeting that aimed at coming up with unified attitudes towards participation in the national dialogue.
Some southern leaders including the former vice president of Yemen Ali Salem Al-Beidh and Hassan Ba-Oam boycotted the meeting, but sources said that Benomar will meet with Ba-Oam separately.
Southern leaders demanded in the meeting to recognize the right of self-determination to South Yemen and that the dialogue will be held between the south and the north outside Yemen.
Benomar, as sources affirmed, urged the southern leaders to participate in the dialogue conference without pre-conditions, stressing that the international community will not any demands of secession.
Yemeni political sources had citied that guarantees were presented the southern leaders, pointing out that they and their families will be given a complete security protection and that they will be allowed to practice their political life freely under Yemen's constitution. They also said that the leaders were ensured that the dialogue will have no a ceiling and that the southern case will be among priorities of the dialogue's agenda. Yemeni political sources have anticipated that exiled southern leaders will come back to Yemen to take part in the national dialogue conference, a Saudi newspaper, Okaz has reported.