Middle East

Saleh Forced Out As Yemen Is Latest Country To Fall In Arab Spring Riots

From January 2011 he struggled to quell big popular protests against his rule as a spate of gunbattles pushed Yemen closer to civil war. The violence culminated in deadly clashes between forces of the Hashed tribal group and government troops. Under mounting pressure, Saleh agreed to sign a Gulf accord in November that was meant to see him gradually relinquish power.

Published

14 years ago

February 20, 2012

Geoffrey Grider

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SANAA (Reuters) – Ali Abdullah Saleh, who once compared his 33-year rule of Yemen to “dancing on the heads of snakes,” formally steps down this week after Yemenis anoint a new president in an election many hope will give Yemen a chance for democracy.

A boy looks through a hole in a banner, with an image of Yemen's outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as he performs the weekly Friday prayers during a rally to show support for him in Sanaa January 27, 2012. REUTERS/Mohamed al-Sayaghi

No ceremonies are expected to mark the end for Saleh, who is out of the country being treated in the United States for injuries he sustained in an assassination attempt last June.

But the election, in which Saleh’s deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is the only candidate, is expected to pave the way for Yemen to introduce political and economic reforms and give it a chance to restructure security forces currently run by the outgoing president’s relatives.

Before he flew to the United States last month, Saleh apologized for “any shortcoming” in his rule and said he planned to come back. “I will return to Sanaa as head of the General People’s Congress party,” he told senior party and government officials in a televised speech before his departure on January 22.

But fears remain that the accord, inked in Saudi Arabia, the world’s No. 1 oil exporter which shares a long porous border with Yemen, may not provide the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state with a roadmap out of misery and chaos.

The bombing of Saleh’s compound in June, an apparent assassination attempt, left Saleh with severe burns, forcing him to seek treatment in Saudi Arabia, one of Yemen’s resource-rich neighbors which had tried in vain to ease him from power.

Ever nimble, Saleh reneged on three deals to transfer power before the attempt on his life and shrugged off U.S. and Saudi pressure to stay in exile, making good on a promise to return home in September.

But international pressure redoubled in October, when the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution demanding he sign a handover plan brokered by Gulf neighbors. France and Britain hinted at European Union sanctions against him.

The United States has talked openly of its concern about who might succeed Saleh, an ally in the fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based wing of the militant group.

Until last year, Saleh’s grip on power seemed unshakeable. In 2010, supporters pushed for constitutional changes to allow him unlimited five-year terms as president. Speculation was high that he was grooming one of his sons as a possible successor.

But popular uprisings that toppled Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak resonated in Yemen, drawing tens of thousands to daily protests in Sanaa and in Taiz to the south, threatening his apparent dynastic ambitions.

Saleh began to offer concessions.

First, he said he would not stand for re-election in 2013 and dismissed the idea of his son succeeding him. Then he offered a referendum on a new constitution by the end of the year and a shift to a truly democratic “parliamentary system.”

But after the death of 52 protesters in March, mostly by sniper fire, a string of generals, tribal leaders, diplomats and ministers either resigned or switched their allegiance to the protesters.

They included key figures in the al-Ahmar and Sanhan tribes, kinsmen who Saleh had placed in key military and other positions.

When confronted with a power transfer deal brokered by the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, Saleh was forced to accept that he has lost the ability to win back his former allies, and sign up to the deal.

OVERSAW UNIFICATION

Saleh became the ruler of North Yemen in 1978 at a time when the south was a separate communist country, and has led the unified country since the two states merged in 1990.

Opponents often complained that he failed to address the basic needs of Yemen’s people, two-thirds of whom live on less than $2 per day. Oil wealth is dwindling and water is running out, though liquefied natural gas exports began in 2009.

Yet Saleh managed to keep Western and Arab powers on side.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, Washington became more aware of Yemen as a source of foot soldiers for Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. Bin Laden himself, though born in Saudi Arabia, could trace his roots back to Yemen’s Hadramaut region.

Saleh cooperated with U.S. authorities, and the CIA started taking action against wanted figures. But by 2007, militants had regrouped in Yemen, and in 2008 they announced that their Saudi and Yemeni wings had united under the banner of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

From 2009, the resurgent group made ever bolder attempts to stage attacks on Saudi and U.S. targets beyond Yemen, as well as targeting foreign tourists at home. At the same time, Shi’ite Muslims in the north rebelled against Saleh’s rule and southerners, feeling marginalized, began a new separatist drive.

Saudi Arabia, the United States and other allies responded by stepping up financial support to bolster Saleh’s rule.

If Saleh has been a determined survivor, he has also been a charismatic and often popular ruler with a canny understanding of the workings of Yemeni society.

Born in 1942 near Sanaa, Saleh had only limited education before joining the military as a non-commissioned officer.

His first break came when President Ahmed al-Ghashmi, who came from the same Hashed tribe as Saleh, appointed him military governor of Taiz, North Yemen’s second city. When Ghashmi was killed by a bomb in 1978, Saleh replaced him.

In 1990, an array of domestic and regional circumstances propelled North Yemen under Saleh and the socialist South Yemen state into a unification that Saudi Arabia at first opposed.

He angered Riyadh by staying close to Saddam Hussein during the 1990-91 Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, leading to the expulsion of up to one million Yemenis from Saudi Arabia. Before the crisis, Kuwait had given Yemen financial aid.

But Saleh then won plaudits from Western powers for carrying out economic reforms drawn up by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and made efforts to attract foreign investors.

His General People’s Congress party swept to victory in a 1993 parliamentary election, the first held after unification. South Yemen tried but failed to secede in a brief civil war in 1994 and Saleh then proceeded to move closer to Saudi Arabia, allowing an influx of its radical Wahhabi form of Sunni Islam. source – Yahoo News

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Headline News

TDS ALERT: Trump Bragged He ‘Solved The Iran Crisis’, But Less Than 24 Hours Later Iranian Gunboats Opened Fire In A Reclosed Strait Of Hormuz To Prove Otherwise

Published

1 day ago

April 18, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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Trump’s Victory Lap Lasted Less Than A Day Before Iranian Gunboats Opened Fire In The Strait Of Hormuz And Reminded The World That Reality Does Not Bend To Boasts

Yesterday, Donald Trump stood before the cameras and talked like the Middle East had been tamed, like the Strait of Hormuz problem was completely handled, like Iran had blinked, backed down, and accepted the new reality. Multiple outlets reported that Trump publicly celebrated the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and claimed Iran had effectively accepted key U.S. demands, including never closing the strait again. Iranian officials, however, were already disputing those claims almost immediately, warning that any opening was conditional and temporary. Now look at what happened today.

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” Psalm 146:3 (KJB)

Iranian gunboats opened fire on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz after Tehran reimposed restrictions, with AP reporting that at least one tanker came under fire and another Indian-flagged supertanker was also shot at, forcing vessels to turn around. Britain’s maritime monitors described multiple incidents involving gunfire and projectiles near the strait. So much for “problem solved.” Just about anyone who knows anything about the Middle East as it relates to Iran knows that the Iranian regime are psychopathic liars who cannot be trusted with anything at any time. Any statement that includes the words “Iran has agreed to…” is nonsensical and is dismissed out of hand.

Trump Derangement Syndrome, or TDS, works both ways, and if you believe everything he says, guess what? You have it.

This is the same pattern we have seen over and over again with Trump on foreign policy. He talks in grand, sweeping declarations of delusion. He boasts. He frames unstable situations as settled victories before the smoke has even cleared. He wants the headline first and the reality later. But reality has a way of showing up with a knife, and in this case it showed up with Iranian gunboats firing on tankers in one of the most strategically important waterways on earth.

President Donald Trump’s handling of the war he started in Iran is reprehensible, despicable and a slap in the face to the memory of the 13 soldiers who died at his incompetent orders. He has never been more worthy and deserving of impeachment than he is right now. @POTUS pic.twitter.com/ITKWOMnmm9

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) April 17, 2026

And let’s be honest about what this means. If Iran is once again using force to control passage through Hormuz, then Trump did not solve the crisis. He didn’t pacify it. He didn’t neutralize it. He merely talked as though he had. AP reports that Tehran explicitly reversed course on reopening the strait and declared that control had returned to Iran’s armed forces under a “new Maritime Regime,” while Trump simultaneously insisted the U.S. blockade would remain in place unless a broader agreement is reached. That is not peace. That is not stability. That is a powder keg with two hands on the fuse.

This is what happens when political theater tries to pass itself off as statecraft.

The Strait of Hormuz is not some campaign prop. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil moves through that choke point, and any serious disruption there threatens shipping, insurance markets, fuel prices, and regional military escalation. When a president starts thundering that the matter is effectively settled, but within hours commercial ships are being fired upon and reversing course, that is not strength. That is exposed weakness dressed up in bravado.

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What makes it worse is the timing. Trump’s rhetoric yesterday helped create the impression that Iran had folded, that American pressure had forced compliance, and that the crisis was winding down. Yet the reporting today shows the exact opposite: Iran is still defiant, still armed, still willing to challenge freedom of navigation, and still setting its own conditions in direct contradiction to Trump’s rosy public claims.

Trump may be able to dominate a news cycle with oversized claims, but he cannot command reality into submission by sheer force of his massive ego. Iran didn’t read the script. they didn’t honor the boast. Iran answered the Trump swagger with gunfire. And now the whole world can see, in real time, that the “solution” Trump seemed so eager to advertise yesterday was no solution at all. This is why serious people do not celebrate before the facts are in. This is why statesmen speak carefully when the region is one bad decision away from catastrophe. And this is why boastful declarations from politicians should always be measured against the next day’s headlines. In this case, the next day’s headlines have rendered the verdict with brutal clarity: Trump claimed victory before there was one, where is is none.

BREAKING NEWS: Strait of Hormuz under FULL Iranian control

‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ co-hosts discuss a report that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and under full IRGC control. Listen as the dumbfounded hosts struggle to comprehend how Iran still retains as much military control after Trump repeatedly said they were “decimated” and “obliterated”. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

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“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Headline News

The Sad Truth About World War Trump Is The US Hasn’t Won, Iran Retains The Enriched Uranium, And The Tyrannical Regime Remains Firmly In Place

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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World War Trump In Iran Has Not Delivered Victory As The Enriched Uranium Remains Unsecured, The Nuclear Threat Survives, And The Regime Still Stands

The sad truth about Trump’s war with Iran is this: America has not won in any final sense, the enriched uranium is still not secured, and the regime remains firmly in place. Strip away the press conferences, the slogans, and the chest-thumping, and that is where things stand. Until those three facts change, calling this a victory is not reality. It’s blatant and overt gaslighting propaganda. President Trump has failed in the war which he, Pete Hegseth and Jared Kushner started, and history will not be kind to the outcome.

“Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.” Luke 14:31,32 (KJB)

For all the talk of strength, dominance, and victory, the central problems remain exactly where they were before the shooting started. Iran’s enriched uranium has not been fully secured, the mullahs are still sitting in power, and the regime that has spent decades chanting “Death to America” is still firmly in place. That is not victory. That is not peace through strength. That is a very expensive, very dangerous standoff dressed up as success. The hard reality is that even now, the nuclear issue remains unresolved. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said this week that any deal would require extremely detailed verification, and reported that Iran still possesses roughly 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity, alarmingly close to weapons-grade. He also warned that inspectors have been denied access to key sites. In plain English, that means the world still does not have full control over the most dangerous part of Iran’s nuclear program. And that is what makes all the victory laps ring hollow.

Listen as the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gives a “sober message” to Iran, a nation he says we have already “obliterated” and “decimated”. Obviously we have not beaten them or the war would be over. Is there enough MAGA Kool-Aid to swallow this propaganda nonsense? At this… pic.twitter.com/3dgd0qCMEA

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) April 16, 2026

If the uranium is still not secured, then the mission is incomplete. If the regime still stands, then the threat structure still stands. If negotiations are still bogged down because Tehran refuses core U.S. demands on enrichment and broader war aims, then whatever was won on the battlefield has not been translated into strategic victory at the table. The latest talks ended without an agreement, with U.S. negotiators saying Iran would not commit to halting its nuclear weapons development.

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This is the part the media class rarely wants to say out loud: bombing a problem is not the same thing as solving it. You can strike facilities, you can damage infrastructure, you can issue ultimatums, and you can flood television screens with martial language, but if the regime survives, retains leverage, and keeps the most critical elements of its nuclear program beyond secure international control, then the deeper problem remains alive.

This is the scoreboard that matters, and from that perspective, Iran is doing quite well.

Iran understands this better than Washington does. The regime does not need to “win” in the conventional American sense. It only needs to endure. It only needs to outlast the pressure, preserve its core power structure, and keep enough of its strategic assets intact to bargain from a position of survival. Right now, that appears to be exactly what has happened. The mullahs are bruised, but they are not gone. Their system is battered, but it is not broken. Their nuclear file is contested, but not closed. That is why the spin coming from both political camps is so dangerous. One side wants to sell this as a show of overwhelming American resolve. The other side wants to reduce it to just another policy dispute. But this is bigger than that. The Middle East is once again proving that military action without decisive end-state control produces exactly the kind of instability that keeps the fire burning. And when the fire is in Iran, around the Strait of Hormuz, with nuclear material still in play, the whole world feels the heat.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Donald Trump

TACO TUESDAY: After Threatening Iran With The Extinction Of Their ‘Whole Civilization’, President Trump Now Agrees To His 8th Meaningless Deadline

Published

2 weeks ago

April 7, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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TACO Trump Blinks On Iran, Backs Away From War Deadline And Hides Behind Two-Week Ceasefire Brokered At The Last Minute

Donald Trump spent the day talking like a wartime Caesar, threatening Iran with civilizational destruction if Tehran did not submit by his deadline. Then, just one hour before the clock ran out, he did what he so often does when the pressure gets real, he blinked. Multiple outlets reported Tuesday, April 7, 2026, that Trump accepted a two-week ceasefire arrangement tied to diplomacy and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, with Pakistan playing the central mediating role. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad there won’t be nuclear war tonight, I truly am. But I am saddened and embarrassed watching the pusillanimous flip-flopper Trump running his mouth only to make another meaningless deadline.

“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8 (KJB)

That is not iron resolve, that’s not Churchillian nerve. That is not the conduct of a man who means what he says. That is the now-familiar Trump cycle in full view: issue a threat big enough to shake markets and dominate headlines, pound the table, demand surrender, and then retreat into a “temporary pause” the moment the consequences of his own rhetoric begin to close in. AP reported Trump warning that a “whole civilization will die tonight,” while also noting the administration was pulled toward a two-week diplomatic off-ramp.

🚨 President Donald J. Trump makes a statement on Iran: pic.twitter.com/9mqTayL0Q3

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 7, 2026

And that is exactly why the “TACO Trump” label keeps sticking to him like tar. “TACO” stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” a phrase that was coined by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong in the tariff context before spreading into the broader political culture. CBS and ABC both traced the acronym to Armstrong and explained its meaning the same way: Trump talks maximum toughness and then backs off before the final collision. What just happened illustrates that beautifully.

I do believe, with all my heart, that according to Daniel 2:21, God put Donald Trump on the throne over America. I also believe that God put him there, not for blessing, but in judgment over a nation that has become very much like Babylon. Just look at all the global chaos now,… pic.twitter.com/CTUTupV6Py

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) April 7, 2026

Now that same label fits this Iran episode like a glove. Trump wanted the political theater of a final ultimatum. He wanted the optics of a strongman standing on the brink of decisive action. He wanted the world to believe that midnight would bring fire. Instead, midnight brought another extension, another pause, another exit ramp, another reminder that Trump loves the language of confrontation more than the reality of it. The ceasefire was reached only hours before Trump’s own deadline for major military strikes.

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Let’s say it plainly: you do not get to spend the afternoon threatening to wipe out a civilization and then spend the evening hiding behind a “double-sided ceasefire” without being called exactly what that looks like. It looks weak. It looks theatrical. It looks like a man addicted to brinkmanship but terrified of the bill coming due. Even AP’s more cautious live coverage still described the moment as Trump pulling back on his threats for two weeks, subject to Iran agreeing to terms.

To be fair on the facts, the surrounding details were still moving fast Tuesday night. Axios framed the ceasefire as agreed; AP emphasized Pakistan’s push for the delay; The Guardian described Trump as suspending the deadline rather than pressing forward immediately. But across those reports, the core point holds steady: Trump did not follow through on the thunder he had just unleashed. He backed away into a two-week pause. This latest Iran ceasefire does not make Trump look like a master strategist. It makes him look like what his critics have been saying all along: loud on the front end, slippery on the back end, and forever trying to pass off retreat as genius. He wanted to look like a lion, but he ended the day looking like TACO Trump once again.