Opponents of Ali Abdullah Saleh accused the party of the former president of trying to hamper political transition in the country.

Opponents of Ali Abdullah Saleh accused the party of the former president of trying to hamper political transition in the country.

Two days after all but two members of Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) walked out of a cabinet meeting, his opponents charged that GPC figures were behind "smear campaigns" against Prime Minister Mohammed Basindawa.

These campaigns "reveal non-national inclinations that aim to harm national reconciliation and the missions of the unity government," said the statement by the Common Forum, an alliance of long-time Saleh opponents.

The 34-member unity cabinet, appointed in December in accordance with a hard-won transition deal, has equal numbers of ministers from the GPC and the Common Forum alliance.

The alliance criticized what it called "the destructive policies of the former regime (that has ruled) over the past 33 years," referring to Saleh's years in power.

Under the terms of the Gulf-brokered agreement which he signed with the opposition in November, Saleh gave up the Sanaa presidency that he had held since 1978.