Bloodless Coup

And a pragmatic new leader

The news that came crackling over Radio Aden shortly after midnight indicated that once again intrigue was brewing in the South Yemen capital. Ostensibly for reasons of health, Abdel Fattah Ismail, 40, had resigned as his country's President and secretary-general of the ruling Socialist Party. Replacing him in both positions was Prime Minister Ali Nasser Muhammad, 41. In fact, there had been a bloodless coup.

A doctrinaire Marxist, Ismail seized power in mid-1978 as head of a triumvirate that overthrew (and executed) President Salem Robaye Ali for "laxism toward reactionary states." Ismail strengthened his country's ties with Moscow and last year signed a friendship treaty with the U.S.S.R. Soviet arms and experts poured into South Yemen, raising the specter of a Soviet-run military base near the oilfields and shipping lanes of the Persian Gulf. Ismail proved to be such a loyal friend of Moscow's that he was the only Arab head of state to endorse openly the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

As the one avowed Marxist state in the Middle East, South Yemen has long been something of a problem to other Arab states. Neighboring Oman has protested the South Yemeni government's support of rebels in its Dhofar region. Even radical Iraq gave aid and comfort to Yemeni exiles at odds with Ismail. The Saudis have long been worried by Ismail's attempts to unite his country with non-Marxist North Yemen by force of arms. At home, meanwhile, Ismail was constantly at odds with his own Politburo and achieved such unpopularity that Moscow eventually agreed it was time for him to go.

Nasser Muhammad is also a Marxist but, unlike his predecessor, apparently has a gift for compromise. In his first speech as President, he praised the friendship treaty with Moscow and vowed: "Our party will continue to struggle for Lenin's principles." At the same time, Nasser Muhammad began patching up quarrels with his neighbors. Within a day of taking office, he sent a special envoy to Saudi Arabia, whose approval is essential for unification with North Yemen. That goal may be closer than ever. Replying to a friendly overture from Nasser Muhammad, North Yemen's strongman, Lieut. Colonel Ali Abdullah Saleh, expressed his conviction that "relations between the two parties of Yemen will be favorably reinforced, in order to achieve the full unity of Yemen."

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