SOUTH YEMEN FACES IMPERIALIST GANG-UP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000900060001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 17, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2001/07/27 :ICWX+R P8blb16O1ROOO9OOO6O
17
OCT 1972
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By TWA FOLLY
The People's I)ein ocratIc
Republic of Yemen (South Ye-
men) is now under attack by an
alliance of imperialists and
Arab reactionaries. At the end of
Sep1eIn ber, border fighting
erepted bet een North and South
Yemen in the al-Dali border-
sheikhdom, about 80 miles north
of Aden.
While South Yemen has ap-
pealed for a ceasefire and Arab
League mediation, North Ye-
men does not want any neutral
observers poking around its bor-
der town of Qa'taba, to s:.e what
is going on.
Ali Nasser Moharnnred, Prem-
ier of South Yemen, has charged
that Saudi Arabia paid, organ-
ized and armed a I a r g e force
of South Yemeni exiles in North
Yemen, who crossed the border
and precipitated the fight-
ing; he said those killed by South
Yemen's armed forces were
carrying brand-new U.S.-made
weapons and ammunition.
British role
At the same time, South Ye-
men reported (and Agence
France Presse has confirmed)
British- troop movements on
its eastern frontier with Oman.
Oman in fact is a British col-
ony; about 135 British military
officers run the so-called Sultan's
Armed Forces and are backed
up by the big British air and naval
base on Masira Island off the
Omani coast. Oil was struck in
Oman in 1964 and since then the ..
British have dug in for dear life. No doubt AID did have a rea-
The Arab League has refused to sonable pretext to survey the area
recognize Oman as an indopend- south cad cast of the city of'I'a'izz
eat country. if it chose to, and this is where
In Dhofar, the western part of the fighting broke out at the end
Oman which shares a border of September.
with South Yemen, an anti- There is no lack of possible vil-
British liberation movement lams in this situation. In fact,
controls about half the territory. tn,ey are all together, like a flock
The British are convinced that the of vultures hovering over South
Dhofar liberation movement Yemen while it is struggling to
is being aided by South Yemen build a democratic worker.
and would do anything to stop it. peasant state. it's time we be-
Reactionary lineup gan showing we can sticl: together
The lineup of forces against too, to keep freedom alive on
South Yemen thus is: the U.S., part of the Arabian Peninsula.
Britain, Saudi Arabia, North Ye-
men, and various South Ye-
meni feudal and reactionary
elements. The latter include
large numbers of Aulagi tribes-
men dismissed from the
South Yemen armed forces
and the ex-ruler of South Ye-
men's Bcihan province, Sharif
Hussein al-liabili.
Beihan, abaut 180 miles north-
east of Aden, is in a strategic lo-
cation, right on the North-South
Yemen border, and also on the
dividing-line between the desert
to the northeast and the moun-
tains to the west.
Since North Yemen's eastern
border with Saudi Arabia is unde-
fined, a Saudi "funnel" goes right
through to Bcihan.
Sharif Hussein of 13eihan fled to
Saudi Arabia in 1967: since he is a
Hashemite, he claims fami-
ly ties with King Hussein of Jor-
dan. And lie claims also the
sympathies of North Yemen's
royalists, whom lie supported all
during the civil war with arms
and supplies from Saudi Arabia.
Last March, While South ye-
men's National Front Organiza-
tion (NFO) held its Fifth Congress
in Aden and resolved to carry
through a thorough-going agrar-
ian revolution to smash feudal-
ism, Sharif Hussein and his fol-
lowers, armed with U.S. wen-
pons supplied by Saudi Arabia,
showed up in Beihan and tried to
start a revolt. The attempt
failed miserably, no doubt be-
cause North Yemen could not be
relied on. But since North Ye-
men re-established diplomatic
relations with the I.I.S. on July 2,
all sorts of intriguing possibilities
have opened up.
U.S. aid programs, prior to
198,7, had been concentrated in the
southern part of North Yemen
next to the South Yemen border.
The U.S. announced on July 14'
the resumption of all aid proj-
ects, which had been run by the
Agency for International I)cyelop-
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 Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-RDP80-01601R0009000600
MUHAHMAD SPEAKS
22 May 70 STATINTL
CIA COllustOf
,f BRAZZAVILLE-More than against the Peoples. Republic
j 3,000 machine guns and 650,000 of the Congo. The more than 30,
rounds of ammunition have: men who occupied the radio
`been ,sent to Iraq to aid the CIA station ;.in Brazzaville, to an,
rand, Iraqi, :;~itppets in an -tended oov~e' Seizure `that
~a rew..tiours, sere
intended ;coup against The w.a ted or
present government. Hided and abetted through
''PE CLUMSY hands of U.S: Mobutu and backed with U.S.
money and arms.
intervention was brought to
;light in :the Sudan late March, In southern :.,'Ye'men,. they
when U.S. : backed. 'Sudanese covers' `have 'been ?:,pulled off of,
tried to arouse' the populace U.S. Centraf ;Intelligence l
V a g a i n s- 'Sudanese Agents there who -tad supplied
;,Revol.utionary Council arms and expenses to an
IVimeiry. In a series of armed against the present govern- g
riots headed by U.S. puppet El went.
Hadi El Mahdy, U.S.money According to' ?UAR vice"
and arms failed to upset the president Sadai, US -:Forces,
i,"president leadership of, the tried to hatch a plot to "change i
country. the government (of the United
Also in late March, U.S. Arab Republic) before the]
"fair-haired African - boy" evacuation of troops from l
Joseph Mobutu, played. 'a Wheelus Air -.Base -in 'Libya';
major role in the intended coup scheduled for the end of June.
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-RDP80-01601 R000900060001-9