Ali Nasser Mohammed: The September 26 Revolution Paved the Way for the October 14 Liberation

Former Yemeni President Ali Nasser Mohammed said on Sunday that the September 26, 1962 revolution had a significant impact on the outbreak of the October 14, 1963 revolution against British colonialism in South Yemen.

Nasser Mohammed added, in an interview with the "Al-Tasi'a" program on "Al-Mahriah" channel, that the South witnessed popular, tribal, and union uprisings in various provinces and cities since the British occupation of Aden in 1839, leading up to the October 14 revolution.

He explained that the revolutionaries of the South had three main objectives: liberation, unification of the South, and then achieving Yemeni unity, noting that the masses in the South chanted "a unified, democratic Yemen" in schools and events.

He pointed out that the struggle for Yemeni unity was not limited to peaceful action, as the country witnessed conflicts and wars between the North and the South, including the 1972 war, which he said erupted in the context of disputes over achieving unity.

Nasser Mohammed, who was then Prime Minister and Minister of Defense in South Yemen, said that the Yemeni parties should have resorted to the language of dialogue instead of weapons to resolve their differences.

He added that the Arab League intervened during the 1972 war, sending a delegation to Sana'a and Aden that met with officials from both sides with the aim of reaching a ceasefire.

He continued that he then contacted the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of North Yemen, Mohsen Al-Aini, and informed him that the Arab League delegation had indicated Sana'a's agreement to a ceasefire, confirming the South's readiness to stop fighting the next day and sit down to discuss the issue of Yemeni unity, over which the war had erupted.

He noted that the two parties later agreed to a ceasefire and to hold a meeting under the auspices of the Arab League, pointing out that this path led to the signing of the first Yemeni unity agreement, known as the "Cairo Agreement".

He explained that the Cairo Agreement formed the basis for subsequent agreements, including the Tripoli and Kuwait agreements, along with other steps on the path to unity, which included unifying school curricula, establishing joint companies, forming the Supreme Yemeni Council, as well as stopping the wars between the North and South.

The former Yemeni president stressed that the most prominent achievement during that stage was resorting to the language of dialogue instead of weapons, noting that subsequent political circumstances contributed to the achievement of Yemeni unity in 1990.

He noted that a number of agreements and achievements related to unity, including the Supreme Yemeni Council and joint curricula, were realized in later stages, stressing that he blessed those steps.