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Government and administration · Yemen state institutions people 2

Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas

حيدر أبو بكر العطاس

South Yemen's last head of state and the united republic's first prime minister

When the January 1986 gunfire broke out he was visiting India; he then negotiated a settlement in the USSR before returning to take the presidency.

A Hadhrami electrical engineer who rose through the National Liberation Front to become a minister and prime minister of South Yemen. After the January 1986 Aden fighting, he became president and steadied the state; as South Yemen's last head of state he led the 1990 unification and became the first prime minister of united Yemen. In the 1994 civil war he served as premier of the breakaway southern government, then went into exile.

Career timeline
  • 1960Joined the Arab Nationalist Movement
  • 1963Joined the National Liberation Front (NLF)
  • 1969–1978Minister of Public Works, Transport and Construction
  • 1985–1986Prime Minister of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
  • 1986–1990Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Council (head of state)
  • 1990–1994First prime minister of the united Republic of Yemen
  • 1994Prime minister of the secessionist Democratic Republic of Yemen
  • 1994–2003In exile in Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia

Ali Abdullah Saleh

علي عبد الله صالح
Government and administration Yemen state institutions Yemen Yemen 1942/1947–2017 ✕ killed in ; circumstances disputed

North Yemen's last president and unified Yemen's first head of state

In May 1988 North and South agreed to ease tensions, demilitarize the border, create a joint oil exploration area and allow passage on a national ID card, and in November 1989 they agreed in Aden on a 1981 draft unity constitution, leading to the declaration of the Republic of Yemen on 22 May 1990.

Yemeni military officer and politician. He joined the army in 1958, was commissioned in 1963 and fought in the North Yemen civil war, served as military governor of Taiz in 1977, and became president of North Yemen in 1978. He held that post until the North-South unification on 22 May 1990, then served as president of the Republic of Yemen until his resignation in 2012. He ruled autocratically from 1994, allied with the Houthis after the 2011 Yemeni revolution, broke with them in late 2017, and was killed on 4 December 2017.

Career timeline
  • 1958Joined the army
  • 1963Commissioned as an officer, fought in the North Yemen civil war
  • 1977Military governor of Taiz
  • 1978.06Joined the provisional presidency council after Ahmad al-Ghashmi's assassination
  • 1978.07–1990.05President of North Yemen (Yemen Arab Republic)
  • 1990–2012President of the unified Republic of Yemen; handed over power in November 2011 and left office in February 2012