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

SHARE NOW THE END BEGINS:

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

Comments

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 days ago

April 7, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

SHARE NOW THE END BEGINS:

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.

READ WHAT THE KING JAMES BIBLE HAS TO SAY ABOUT THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MENTAL ILLNESS AND DEVIL POSSESSION, CLICK TO ORDER!!

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.

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

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!

“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

President Trump Issues Stark New Warning To Iran Saying ‘A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight’ Invoking, And Threatening, Images Of Apocalyptic Disaster

Published

2 days ago

April 7, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

SHARE NOW THE END BEGINS:

Kharg Island Hit, Deadline Broken, and Trump Talks of a Civilization Dying Tonight as Middle East Brinkmanship In Iran Turns Fully Apocalyptic

Donald Trump’s latest Truth Social post is not the language of peace, prudence, or strength. It is the language of a man standing on the edge of a regional firestorm and talking like he is prepared to push the whole thing over the cliff. When a sitting president says, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” after U.S. strikes had already hit more than 50 military targets on Kharg Island earlier in the day, that is not measured leadership. That is apocalyptic brinkmanship dressed up as strategy. That is World War Trump.

“And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:” Daniel 2:21 (KJB)

We understand that according to Daniel 2:21, that is is God that sets up kings and removes kings, all to accomplish His will in an given dispensation. If we believe that, and we do, then we rightly understand that Donald Trump is God’s man “on the throne” for this time we find ourselves in right now. A period of time the Bible calls the last days. So everything we are watching now are events and situations that have prophecy stamped all over them, because it is time for the prophets to be fulfilled.

BREAKING NEWS: Here we go! This confirmed video from RAF Fairford shows loaded B-52H Stratofortresses taking off today, and will be arriving in Iran tonight to coincide with Trump’s 8 PM deadline. Will Trump make good on his threat? We’re about to find out. pic.twitter.com/MSScvg9yg9

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

I have been saying for 10 years now that the whole reason why I voted for Donald Trump, all three times, was because I want very much for the end times timeline to be advanced. Trump is not doing it, God is doing it through Trump, and I agree with Isaiah that all this is a “strange act” and absolutely a “strange work” to behold. God has given America the president we deserve, amen? Amen.

‘A whole civilization will die tonight’: Trump’s menacing Truth Social message in full

FROM THE METRO UK: Donald Trump has posted an unhinged Truth Social rant hours after apparently breaking the deadline he set for Iran by striking Kharg Island.

‘A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,’ he wrote. ‘However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?

‘We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. ’47 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!’

93 million people live in Iran, with the majority of the population living in built-up urban areas. Trump’s message comes hours before the 8pm deadline he set for Iran to agree to his demands. Explosions have already been reported on Kharg Island and other critical infrastructure today, however. READ MORE

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

HELL WILL REIGN DOWN: Trump Threatens Iran With An End Times Holy War Ripped From The Book Of Revelation If They Don’t Make Peace In 48 Hours

Published

5 days ago

April 4, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

SHARE NOW THE END BEGINS:

Trump Warns Iran “All Hell Will Reign Down” In 48 Hours, And That Strange Word Choice May Reveal A Little More Than He Intended

President Donald Trump just dropped one of the most explosive warnings of this entire Iran confrontation, posting on Truth Social: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD! President DONALD J. TRUMP.” Multiple current outlets and live reports quoted that post verbatim on April 4, 2026, as Trump tied the ultimatum to his earlier ten-day deadline over the Strait of Hormuz.

“Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.” Isaiah 14:9 (KJB)

This is not merely another political post. This is the language of countdown, consequence and collision. Trump is telling Iran that the clock is nearly spent, that the deadline is real, and that failure to comply will bring devastating force. The Strait of Hormuz is not some minor patch of water. It is one of the most strategic choke points on the face of the earth, and whenever that narrow passage is threatened, the whole world feels it. Oil markets feel it, shipping lanes feel it, militaries feel it, and world governments feel it. So when Trump says “open up the Hormuz Strait” and attaches a 48-hour warning to it, he is not playing word games. He is putting the entire region on notice.

But there is something else in Trump’s Truth Social post that absolutely jumps off the page. Trump did not say hell would “rain” down. He said hell would reign down. Meaning Hell will begin to rule on Earth.

IS TRUMP HAVING A MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS? IS HE TORTURED BY DEVILS? THIS BOOK WILL TELL YOU, CLICK TO ORDER!!

Now maybe some people will dismiss that as a typo. Maybe it was, I don’t know. But words matter, and when a world leader is issuing a fiery public threat in the middle of a fast-moving regional crisis, every syllable carries weight. “Rain down” would mean destruction falling from above. But “reign down” carries a very different flavor altogether. Reign speaks of rule. Reign speaks of authority. Reign speaks of dominion imposed by superior power. That one word transforms the sentence from a mere threat of attack into something that sounds like judgment descending with force and rule attached to it. That is what makes this so striking. Whether Trump intended it or not, “reign” gives the whole statement an apocalyptic tone. It sounds less like a military response and more like a pronouncement. It sounds like power enthroned. It sounds like punishment backed by dominion. It sounds like the kind of language that reveals the deeper spirit of the moment. America is no longer whispering to Iran through diplomatic back channels. America is standing at the edge of the battlefield, pointing directly at Tehran, and warning that the next move may bring apocalyptic fire.

For years now, the Middle East has been a boiling cauldron, each fresh crisis drawing the nations one step closer to open alignment, open hostility and open war. Iran has long been a chief agent of chaos in the region, using proxies, terror, shipping threats and military posturing to push the entire area toward ignition. Now the Strait of Hormuz once again stands in the center of the storm, and Trump has decided that the time for measured talking points is over.

This is where we are on the end times timeline. Not in an age of peace, but in an age of ultimatums. Not in a season of calm, but in a season of escalation. Not in a world stepping back from the brink, but in one racing toward it. President Trump may indeed see his ‘Hell Will Reign Down’ threat come to pass in ways he’s never dreamt of. Or maybe he will TACO and forget all about it entirely. You never know with Trump.