Yemeni Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi called Sunday on the country's political rivals to be committed to a truce and a UN-backed peaceful transition, a day after clashes in the capital Sanaa killed 13 people, the state Saba news agency reported.
"All parties and political forces must be committed to the truce and refrain from escalation or any activities that would run counter to the historic political settlement in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2014 and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative," Saba quoted Hadi as saying.
Hadi has been acting as president since outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh handed power to him in line with the GCC -brokered power transfer deal signed by Saleh and the opposition in Saudi Arabia on Nov. 23, Xinhua reported.
Under the deal, the long-time leader retains the title of honorary president for 90 days before his resignation and enjoys immunity from prosecution afterwards.
Despite the deal, Saleh faced almost daily protests demanding his prosecution.
Tens of thousands of protesters, who had been marching from several southern provinces since Tuesday, arrived in Sanaa on Saturday to demand Saleh's prosecution. Clashes soon broke out when the government forces tried to drive the march away from the presidential palace. Medics said at least 13 protesters were killed and 200 others injured.
Prime Minister Mohamed Basindwa of the new opposition-led coalition government then ordered Ministers of Defense and Interior to launch a comprehensive investigation into the Saturday clashes, according to Saba.
The opposition blamed the violence on military unit run by Saleh's relatives, accusing it of killing the protesters, which was denied by an official statement posted Sunday on the Defense Ministry's website.