Revolution promotes Yemen nationalist sentiments

SANA’A, Sept 25 (Saba) – In a decisive moment before the 26th September revolution, a group of enlightened people were preordained to shape the future of the country which we are presently living in. Those strugglers were seeking to sculpt a nation out of people who had long been subject to ruthless suppression and oppression. The Goals of the revolution declared were revealing nationalist and humanitarian significance. The fifth Goal stated that the national unity must be a milestone for the achievement of the inter-Arab unity.” This Goal indicates to the inevitable connection between Yemen’s revolution and the interest of the Arab world. On September 17, 2003, President Ali Abdullah Saleh had reiterated Yemen’s serious call for an urgent Arab summit to resist the Israeli decision seeking the expulsion of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Yemen rather showed readiness to host the summit instead of the Arab League if it is not possible for the Arab League to host it. Forty one years have passed between the moment when the Revolution Goals were drafted and the moment when President Saleh demonstrated determination to summon the Arab efforts in withstanding grave challenges through an initiative that came up to the estimation of observers as the strongest Arab answer for the Israeli escalation of brutality. Throughout those 41 years, Yemen has created various initiatives and proposals to aimed to cement the firmness of the unity of the Ummah. Yemen’s political say still carries the same loyalty and commitment to the pan-Arab issues. This loyalty is especially lucid in President Saleh’s addresses for the nation on the anniversaries of the Yemeni revolutions and the eves of the National Day occasions. The loyalty to the pan-Arab issues is a commitment of all officials of the country. While the country was still recovering from the wounds of the secession predicament, the wise leadership of the country has been lucidly emphasizing its adherence to the common interest of the Arab and Islamic Ummah. “I only assure you that Yemen will press forward with the foreign policy of the past which worked on the same premise that considers Yemen an integral part of the Arab and Islamic Ummah,” said President Saleh in an address on the eve of the 35th anniversary of the Yemeni revolution. “Yemen will stick to its stance seeking pan-Arab alignment and overhauling the Arab League as the key body tasked with gathering the Arabs to pursue their common purposes more effectively,” President Saleh added. These remarks, in fact, evoked a special impact on the pan-Arab alignment for the remaining years of the 1990s decade. Very early in the 3rd Millennium, Yemen presented an initiative that staged a regular summit for the Arab League member states. On March 2001, the Arab leaders were holding the first round of the summit in the Jordanian capital, Amman in accordance with Yemen’s suggestion in the Extraordinary Arab Summit held earlier in Cairo. In a final communiqué, the Arab leaders considered their first meeting of the regular summits, “a new stride” in the pan-Arab alignment to tackle terminal issues concerning their nations and cement ties between them.” In President Saleh’s 1996 annual address, President Saleh stressed the imperative of overhauling the Arab League. The nationalist significance of the revolution is reflected by its goals, said President Saleh’s Political Advisor Abdul-Karim Al-Eryani in remarks to Saba. ‘The stability during the unity time,’ he believed, ‘obviously an outcome of the blessed revolution has promoted the significance of the Ummah-oriented issues.” Unquestionably, unity offered Yemen a stage to play again the role of promoting the common interests of the Arab nations, said the Secretary General of the Unionist Popular Nasserite party, Abdul-Malik Al-Mikhlafi. “Yemen turned to be the only Arab country that set a pattern for the inter-Arab union when it united and preserved the advantages of the unity.” This achievement, he added, “has yielded a more effective foreign policy in regards to the interests of the Arab nation.” Assistant Secretary General of the General People’s Congress (GPC), Mohammed H. Al-Aydarus believes that Yemen’s creation of “initiatives for overhauling the Arab system” does correspond with the mottos of Yemen reiterated in most of the political sayings.” The Yemeni initiative, according to him, reflects the ripeness of the Yemeni political sayings as inspired from the ethos of the revolution. “That is why it [the initiative] views uniquely the path to inter-Arab pursuance of the common purposes and tackling of letdowns hindering progresses.” AA/KM