Draft:Ali Nasir Muhammad

Ali Nasir Muhammad
Name	Ali Nasir Muhammad
Other Names	{{{other_names}}}
Personal Details
Birth Place	Yemen
Brith Date	1939
Death Place	{{{death_place}}}
Death Date	{{{death_date}}}

Ali Nasir Muhammad (Arabic: علي ناصر محمد الحسني‎; born 1939) is a politician from Yemen. He served two terms as President of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. His first term was from 26 June 1978 to 27 December 1978, and his second term began in April 1980 after the resignation of former President Abdul Fattah Ismail and his exile in Moscow. Ali Nasir Muhammad adopted a policy of non-interference in the affairs of Oman and North Yemen. On 13 January 1986, armed conflict broke out in Aden between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, who had returned from exile to retake power. This led to a one-month civil war resulting in thousands of deaths. Ali Nasir Muhammad was removed from the presidency and fled to the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) with 6,000 supporters. Abdul Fattah Ismail was killed during these conflicts. This presidential term began on 21 April 1980 and ended on 24 January 1986. The next President of Yemen who came to power in 1986 was Ali Salim al-Beidh. Ali Nasir Muhammad was a member of the National Front and the Socialist Party since the establishment of the Socialist Party and the National Front of Yemen in 1978. During the 1994 civil war between the two Yemens, he and his supporters, intending to take revenge on those who coup against his government, fought alongside North Yemeni forces against the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. In 2011, during popular protests and demonstrations in Yemen, Ali Nasir Muhammad was one of the figures opposing the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh. He participated in and was a member of the Transitional Council of Yemen, which was formed with 17 members to oppose the authoritarian government of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Biography

Not much information is available about his personal life. He was born in 1939 or 1940. His father was a farmer. Ali completed his elementary and secondary education in Abyan. He then graduated from the Aden Teachers' Institute and worked as a teacher until 1964. He has six sons and daughters: Jamal, Arwa, Tariq, Lumia, Anas, Misan.

Political Career

Ali Nasir Muhammad joined the "Nationalists" group in 1963, which later changed to the "National Liberation Front" and finally the "Yemeni Socialist Party". When South Yemen gained independence from British rule in 1967, Ali Nasir Muhammad was elected governor of "Sabae Jazar" as one of the activists of the National Front. He then became governor of "Lahj", a city near Aden, the capital of South Yemen, where Ali Nasir Muhammad had previously educated children. In 1969, he was promoted to the Ministry of "Local Administration", and from 1971 to 1980, he managed the Yemen Ministry of Defence. "Local Administration" is a specific ministry existing in some Arab countries responsible for managing city affairs and social services. Ali Nasir Muhammad also rose day by day in the Socialist Party. In 1972, he became a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the National Front, and 6 years later, he attained the same position in the Yemeni Socialist Party.

In general, it must be acknowledged that Ali Nasir Muhammad had a special personality compared to many Arab leaders. He had and has a rational mindset, but at the same time, he is a shrewd human. Although he was under the Socialist Party programme, he also relied on his own initiative. He tried to be among the people and connect with them as much as possible. These, along with his cultural background as a teacher, gave him a special appeal and caused his ascent in the political ladder day by day.

At the Helm of Politics

The year 1980 was particularly significant for Ali Nasir Muhammad. Simultaneously, he became the President, Prime Minister, and General Secretary of the ruling party. Naturally, the head of the Socialist Party was effectively the President of Yemen. The Yemeni Socialist Party maintained offices in all cities of Yemen and organised programmes to attract the populace.

He was the arch-enemy of Ali Abdullah Saleh, to the extent that each sought to seize the other's territory. In his meetings, Ali Nasir Muhammad explicitly described the President of North Yemen as illiterate, incomprehensible, foolish, insignificant, and a disciple of the United States. This hostility, coupled with the South's inclination towards socialism, led Western countries and consequently Saudi Arabia to increase their influence in North Yemen. Differences between the domestic and foreign policies of the two countries, which resulted in each government supporting revolutionary groups in the other, led to border conflicts between South and North Yemen in 1972 and 1979.

However, there were countries that maintained positive relations with Ali Nasir Muhammad. One of the most important was the Soviet Union, regarding whose role in Yemen's development and the reasons for the expansion of its influence we have spoken somewhat earlier. Ali Nasir Muhammad was honoured by the Soviet government with the receipt of the award known as the Order of Friendship of Peoples.

Relations with Iran

Among the representatives of foreign governments, in addition to Syria, Palestine, and the Soviet Union, the ambassador of Iran also held a high position with Ali Nasir Muhammad. Another one of the most important regional allies of Ali Nasir Muhammad was the Islamic Republic of Iran. He had a great interest in Iran, and this matter had specific reasons:

Given the hostility between the Iranian government and North Yemen, he sought to deepen his friendly relations with Iran. Thus, after the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador from North Yemen, he immediately invited the same ambassador to his country.

Ali Nasir Muhammad, considering the strengthening of relations between Iraq and North Yemen and the United States after the Islamic Revolution, opposed Iraq's attack on Iran supported by America. Therefore, in international forums, he constantly supported Iran's position.

The United Kingdom government initiated a project to build an oil refinery in Iran in the early 1950s CE. The start of this project coincided with the struggles of Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh and the National Front for the nationalisation of the oil industry. Consequently, England decided to establish this refinery in another of its bases in the region, namely Aden. Therefore, the Aden refinery was built according to the viscosity of Iranian oil. Given this background, Ali Nasir Muhammad during the imposed war [Iran-Iraq War] invited Iran to refine its oil in Aden and give a portion of the proceeds from its sale to Yemen. This was a win-win deal for Iran and Yemen and strengthened relations between them.

Although Ali Nasir Muhammad was a socialist, he opposed extreme socialists in the Yemeni Socialist Party. He tried to show his difference with extremists such as Abdulfattah Ismail through various means, including strengthening friendly relations with Muslim people and religious states of the Middle East. He sometimes openly participated in the ranks of Congregational prayer, which was an unusual matter for a socialist in that period.

As a result of these positive relations, he would annually congratulate Imam Khomeini (may God have mercy on him) on 22 Bahman, the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, and the Imam would send messages of affection in response. In most of his responses, he expressed sentences regarding the American Alliance between North Yemen and Iraq and spoke of the necessity of Muslims fighting the Zionist regime.

The founder of the Islamic Revolution on 20 October 1982 (CE) in response to Ali Nasir Muhammad's congratulatory message on the occasion of the start of the lunar year stated: "With utmost regret, the new year arrives when the Muslims of the world are afflicted with various calamities and every day a new conspiracy is designed and implemented by the superpowers, especially criminal America, against them. And now it is clear to everyone that many leaders of Islamic countries, instead of uniting and strengthening each other to confront the enemies, have fallen upon each other and conclude military contracts and cooperation agreements against the Islamic Republic... I ask God Almighty to remove all these disorders and worries. And peace be upon you and the mercy of God."

Position in the Arab World

Ali Nasir Muhammad also maintained positive relations with the Palestinians. It should be noted here that the "Arab Steadfastness Front" was initiated through an agreement between Algeria, Libya, Syria, Iraq, South Yemen, and Palestine in 1977, focusing its efforts on confronting the Camp David Accords. This front held a negative stance towards the policies of the Israeli regime and the United States in the Middle East region. This issue, combined with Ali Nasir Muhammad's religious persona, his relations with Iran, and the socialist nature of Palestinian militant groups, particularly during that period, led Palestinians and various Palestinian militant groups to establish active bases in South Yemen and carry out diverse activities. The Palestine Liberation Front, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestine Struggle Front, and others were all present in Yemen. Palestine had an embassy in South Yemen, and Abbas Zaki held the embassy position during that period, striving for Palestine with full strength and complete freedom.

Period of Internal Conflicts

Internal conflicts within the ruling party, namely the Yemeni Socialist Party, eventually led to a civil war in 1986 CE, resulting in the removal of Nasir Muhammad. The story of the coup is as follows: Following the formation of South Yemen, elements with a socialist ideology attempted to seize control of Aden and officially transform South Yemen into a satellite of the Soviet Union. This group comprised the extremists of the Yemeni Socialist Party in South Yemen. This occurred while the people of Yemen possessed a strong Islamic spirit. Ali Nasir Muhammad, who adopted a moderate approach and believed in the necessity of maintaining relations with Islamic countries and even Western Bloc countries, used his authority within the army to protect his government from the actions and sabotaging efforts of the extremist faction, removing Abdul Fattah Ismail and his supporters, and even expelling some from the country. With Ismail's exile to the Soviet Union, his supporters effectively ceased their activities. These supporters were present primarily within the Socialist Party and the army. It is worth noting that the conflict between Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail was not personal in any way.

Abdul Fattah Ismail did not remain quiet in the Soviet Union and met with certain Yemeni delegations there. Until during the presidency of Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, i.e., from the mid-1980s CE, the sound of the breaking bones of the Eastern Bloc became global. Abdul Fattah Ismail, although he was more socialist than Ali Nasir Muhammad and should have suffered a decrease in popularity and political fall due to this defeat more than him, attempted with an opportunistic approach to benefit from the crisis of socialist ideology in the public opinion of South Yemen. Therefore, he ordered his forces in the army and party to execute a coup against Ali Nasir Muhammad. Finally, one day in January 1986 CE, in the middle of a South Yemeni government cabinet meeting, military coup attackers suddenly raided the presidential headquarters. Several people were killed and wounded, but Ali Nasir Muhammad managed to save his life and flee to the Horn of Africa, and from there to Damascus.

All embassies left Yemeni soil as soon as the coup occurred. Only the embassies of China, the Soviet Union, France, East Germany, Palestine, and Iran remained. Iran adopted a neutral stance in the coup. Two weeks after the coup, officials of the Iranian embassy also decided to leave Yemen, and the military forces supporting Ali Nasir Muhammad used all their facilities to assist in the exit of Iranian diplomats and staff. Given the devotion of the Yemeni people and soldiers to Iran, the Iranian embassy remained safe from their encroachment during the coup, while surrounding embassies, especially due to the need for food supplies, were looted.

During the coup, the army and party were divided into two halves (one group supporting Abdul Fattah Ismail and one group supporting Ali Nasir Muhammad), and the people also took up arms and mostly joined the front of Ali Nasir Muhammad. This meant a full-scale conflict that lasted for one or two months.

Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas was not much regarded during Ali Nasir Muhammad's period. However, conditions progressed in such a way that the two factions of the Socialist Party were forced to agree on his presidency to end the conflicts. In fact, he did not possess a specific agenda or ideas that would make one of the two factions feel threatened by his presence. "Ali Salim al-Beidh", a moderate technocrat, also assisted him in running the country's affairs. It was this new group that seriously pursued merger negotiations of the two North and South Yemens. The united Republic of Yemen today was established in this country in 1990 under the presidency of Ali Abdullah Saleh and with Sana'a as the capital. From 1990 CE, with the annexation of South Yemen to the North, the status of Aden as the capital was also forgotten, but it still remained the second city of Yemen politically and economically.

Era of Ali Abdullah Saleh

Ali Nasir Muhammad, from the time of the 1986 coup until the fall of Ali Abdullah Saleh due to popular protests, worked as the manager of the "Center for Arab Strategic Studies" in Damascus and distanced himself from political life. However, he took a stance on certain developments in Yemen, particularly the civil war in 1994 (this war was sparked by the rebellion of socialist separatists in the south and ultimately ended with the defeat of the socialists and the exile of their leaders). He also had meetings with delegations from the Arab League, European Union, and the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council.

Considering that in the years of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the fate of all countries divided into Eastern-aligned and Western-aligned sections was decided in favor of the Western-aligned part (such as the merger of East and West Germany with Berlin as the capital), here too Ali Abdullah Saleh's position was strengthened. He, who in the years prior had also shown his interest in taking over this country by creating border conflicts with South Yemen, took maximum advantage of the existing crisis in the political arena of South Yemen in the second half of the 1980s and started unification negotiations. All this proceeded under conditions where the people of South Yemen were not very satisfied with Ali Abdullah Saleh's presidency over their country. He, who had been active as the President of North Yemen since 1978, ultimately took hold of power in the country as the President of unified Yemen from 1990.

Islamic Awakening

With the start of the Islamic Awakening or according to Ali Nasir Muhammad the "Arab Spring", Ali Abdullah Saleh resigned from power in 2012 amidst widespread popular protests but remains an influential player in the country's political scene, and forces loyal to him entered into an alliance with the Houthis in March 2015.

Ali Abdullah Saleh conducted an interview with the Al-Ahram website in Egypt in November 2013 (i.e., about two and a half years ago) and in it supported the option of federalism as a "neutral" and "non-imposed" option for solving Yemen's problems. He criticized the attention of Yemeni political groups to their personal and group interests in the current sensitive situation. He emphasized the necessity for Yemeni officials (by whom he meant, in that period, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi) to pay attention to the demands of the coalition of parties and the ruling party (the Congress Party, whose chairman was Ali Abdullah Saleh) in the path of transition to the new situation, and asked these groups to adjust their actions according to the interests existing in the relations between Yemen and neighboring countries and "Persian Gulf states", since Yemen has "strategic depth" in the region and surrounding countries can also be considered its "brother" and "friend".

The latest developments date back to the dissolution of the Yemeni parliament and three days were given to political groups to form a presidential council and select an interim government. Russia supported Ali Nasir Muhammad's presidency over this council. However, the aforementioned council, despite heated and persistent discussions, did not reach a final result.