Nasheed requested that Party Talks be resumed: Yameen

Parliamentary Group Leader of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Abdullah Yameen has said that former President Mohamed Nasheed met with him to request for the resumption of the discussions between political parties.

Yameen told Sun Online after the meeting, that the meeting was attended in addition to Yameen and Nasheed, by Nasheed’s former Political Advisor Ibrahim Hussain Zaki.

The meeting was held at Zaki’s residence, H. Hulhugeli, and lasted about 45 minutes.

During the meeting, Nasheed said that Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) wants to resume dialogue between political parties, and requested Yameen to encourage and facilitate this.

Nasheed assured that MDP is ready and willing to cooperate in the matter.

“I don’t know why Nasheed wants this. The discussions were disrupted because MDP withdrew. Perhaps they think that things will not progress because the talks are disrupted. Nasheed talked about Mujtaba’s resignation and the talks being disrupted even before the President left for New York, and expressed interest in resuming the talks,” he said.

When asked if Nasheed’s trial pertaining to the illegal arrest of Criminal Court Judge Abdullah Mohamed, which is scheduled to commence on Monday, was discussed at the meeting, Yameen said that there is no reason for them to discuss that matter.

“The prosecution has nothing to do with me or the government. That’s done by the PG [Prosecutor General]. So we wouldn’t even think about discussing that issue. The only thing we talked about was to resume Party Talks,” he said.

Yameen said that Nasheed’s request does not surprise him, and that the UN expert who works with the Party Talks had also approached him earlier to share similar concerns.

“They met me at PPM Office earlier, and expressed concern that no Chair had been appointed, and that they also wanted the talks to resume. So I was not surprised. I told them that I will discuss with the President when he returns,” he said.

Yameen said that he never met Nasheed when he was President, and that he met Nasheed today in his capacity as a leader of a political party.