Description

50 years in shifting sands:  Personal experience in the building of a modern state in Yemen

by Mohsin A. Alaini, Former Prime Minister of Yemen
Translated from Arabic edition (2002) by Hassan al-Haifi

Muhsin al-Aini first heard of his appointment as Foreign Minister of the Yemen Arab Republic in September 1962, from a Sana’a Radio announcement while visiting Baghdad. He was later, without a great deal more ceremony or explanation, appointed, dismissed and variously transferred among ambassadorial posts (the US, UN, USSR, UK, Germany, also briefly France); and he served four times as Prime Minister.

His start in life was through the Orphans’ School (madrasat al-aytam) set up by Imam Yahya. The memoir ends in 1993, with Muhsin again in Washington as ambassador.Egyptian boorishness towards Yemen’s Republicans

The sands shifted constantly. The (bloodless) coup of November 1970,  the abortive ‘unity’ agreement with Aden in 1972, and the blunder (by others) of deposing Qadhi Abd al-Rahman al-Iryani in 1974. The account of gaining Saudi recognition for the Republic  is of particular interest. Many characters recur; others cross the stage fleetingly… On the diplomatic circuit a meeting with Chou En-lai, the exprience with the ‘famous forty’, the Yemeni circles in Beirut throughout the Civil War, President Abd al-Nasir, the Ba’th Party during his student days in Cairo, the experience as Prime Minister, domestic challenges and tribal consideration and in-fighting, self exile to Iraq, and much more…

Language: English
ISBN: 995374002X
2004, paperback, 384 pages, 19.0 x 14.0 cm (7 x 5 inches)

Publisher: Dar An-Nahar