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