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Yemen: The War and the Haradh Conference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Stanko Guldescu
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Extract

AMINOR consequence of the war of 1914 was that the Turks evacuated the south Arabian country of Yemen which they had occupied since the latter part of the nineteenth century. Yahia Hamid al-Din, heir to the throne of the thirteenhundred-year-old Imamate (Muslim theocratic monarchy) was able to reestablish the power of his dynasty. During his long reign he devoted himself to four principal tasks: the restoration of internal order which had collapsed altogether during the era of Turkish domination; keeping foreigners out of Yemen which came to bear the title of “the Tibet of the Middle East”; building up his treasury which also was that of the country at large; and buying surplus World War I weapons. The last he resold to the Ethiopians and others, or he stored in caves. The locations of these supplies were known only to members of his dynasty and trusted servitors.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , July 1966 , pp. 319 - 331
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1966

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References

1 Le Monde (Paris), 04 5, 1955Google Scholar.

2 Royal Institute of International Affairs, The Middle East. A Political and Economic Survey (Oxford, Toronto, 1950), p. 202Google Scholar.

3 New York Times, january 14, 1958.

4 See text of report submitted by the Egyptian Intelligence agent, Lieut. Col. Ali Fahmy, cited in Guldescu, S., “The Background of the Yemeni Revolution of 1962,” Dalhousie Review, XLV (1965), 68–69Google Scholar. See also Ingrains, Harold, The Yemen: Imams, Rulers, and Revolutions (New York, 1964), pp. 119–133Google Scholar, passim; Abdullah, Abdul-Ilah, Naksat al-Thaurah fil Yaman (Setback of the Revolution in Yemen) (Beirut, 1963)Google Scholar.

5 The Statesman (Calcutta), 07 29, 1960Google Scholar.

6 The Economist (London), 07 25, 1959Google Scholar.

7 New York Times, March 27, 1961.

8 Middle East Economic Digest (London), 01 22, 1960Google Scholar.

9 The most accurate of the several versions of this event is that provided in Harold Ingrams, op. cit., pp. 129–130.

10 Al-Ahram (Cairo), 10 20, 1962Google Scholar.

11 The Economist (London), 01 12, 1963Google Scholar, quoting the reports submitted by its correspondent in Yemen.

12 Editor Mutawi, Hamed' of the Saudi morning journal Al Nadwa, 03 26, 1966Google Scholar. Note, too, the comment of Al Thaurah, the official Baathist organ in Syria, that Nasser had yielded to Feisal at Jedda and so betrayed the Yemeni revolution. (Issue of August 25, 1965).

13 On this agreement see New York Times, August 22, 25, and 26, 1965; New York Herald Tribune, August 25, 1965.

14 Al Khawater (Beirut), 11 11, 1965Google Scholar. My account of the Haradh Conference and subsequent events is based on Arabic minutes of the Conference and other material received directly from correspondents in Yemen, both from the royalist and republican (occupation) zones.

15 The April 25, 1964, edition of the Manchester Guardian questioned the existence of any “effective Republican Government” in Yemen, noting: “The Egyptians have had to take over the greater part of the civil administration of Yemen, in addition to exercising military control.”

16 Note the statement made recently by Ibrahim al-Wazir, head of the “Third Force” element in Yemen, printed in Al Nadwa, April 7, 1966, concerning the Haradh talks. Besides reporting the above-cited facts al-Wazir declared, “Egypt, which signed the Jedda Agreement, was seeking to destroy it.” He accused Nasser of “torpedoing” the Conference.

17 Al Ahram of October 30, 1965, announced that the troop withdrawals would begin in September and would continue over a seven months' period at the rate of 10,000 men a month. Only one Egyptian regiment was to remain in Yemen.

18 Le Monde (Paris), 08 28, 1965Google Scholar.

19 New York Times, December 30, 1965.

20 London Times, December 31, 1965.

21 New York Times, January 26, 1965.

22 New York Times, October 26, 1965.

23 According to the The Economist of September, 11, 1965, this emergency diversion of Russian wheat had to be kept secret from the Russian public because of the bad wheat harvests and food shortages in Russia.

24 New York Times, January 6, 1966.

25 In the years 1964–65 France loaned Egypt over $100,000,000 including a long-term credit of $30,000,000. See Le Monde, October 17–18, 1965.

26 Statement of Ibrahim al-Wazir reported in Al Nadwa, April 7, 1966.

27 Ibid.

28 The Economist, December 11, 1965. For the Saudi stand see also Al Bilad (Riyadh), November 27, 1965; Al Nadwa, November 29, 1965; Al Madinah (Riyadh), December 10, 1965; Al Bilad, December 10, 1965.

29 The weakness of the republican movement in Yemen is well brought out by Abdul-Ilah Abdullah, himself a republican sympathizer, in his work cited above.

30 The Economist, January 1, 1966.

31 Al-Wazir recently reiterated repeated charges made by Yemenis of all categories that one reason why Nasser is keeping his army in Yemen is that by so doing he has an excuse for avoiding war with Israel. Al-Waziri's is only the latest in a long series of indictments of Israel as being one of the chief fomenters of the war in Yemen. See Al Nadwa, April 7, 1966.

32 New York Times, August 25, 1965. A “disengagement agreement” was effected between Nasser and Feisal through American and UN auspices in 1963. They also arranged a cease-fire to take effect on November 8, 1964. Nasser promised solemnly on both occasions that he would take his troops out of Yemen. See Christian Science Monitor, November 6, 1964; New York Times, November 9, 1964.