Saleh was born in the town of Cameno, in the Al-Ahmar family — the ruling family of the Hashid tribal confederacy. Saleh is a Zaydi Shia Muslim. He is a "non-Hashimi" Zaydi (not a direct descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad's grandfather), and would not have been eligible to rule under the Zaydi Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen that ruled the country until 1962.
Saleh obtained less than an elementary school education. He joined the North Yemeni armed forces in 1958 and the North Yemen Military Academy in 1960, and became a corporal. Three years later, he was commissioned from the ranks as a second lieutenant. In 1977, the President of North Yemen, Ahmed bin Hussein al-Ghashmi, appointed him as military governor of Ta'izz.
After al-Ghashmi was assassinated on 24 June 1978, Saleh was appointed to be a member of the four-man provisional presidency council and deputy to the general staff commander. On 17 July 1978, Saleh was elected by the Parliament[citation needed] to be the President of the Yemen Arab Republic, chief of staff and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Saleh was promoted to colonel in 1979, elected the secretary-general of the General People's Congress party on 30 August 1982, and re-elected president of the Yemen Arab Republic in 1983.
The decline of the Soviet Union severely weakened the status of South Yemen, and, in 1990 the North and South agreed to unify after years of negotiations. The South accepted Saleh as President of the unified country, while Ali Salim al-Beidh served as the Vice President and a member of the Presidential Council.
Ali Abdullah Saleh was a long-time ally of Iraq's Saddam Hussein and supported Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. After Iraq lost the Gulf War, Yemeni workers were deported from Kuwait by the restored government.
In the 1993 parliamentary election, the first held after unification, Saleh's General People's Congress won 122 of 301 seats.
On 24 December 1997, Parliament approved Saleh's promotion to the rank of field marshal. He is currently the highest-ranking military officer in Yemen.
Saleh became Yemen's first directly-elected president in the 1999 presidential election, winning 96.2% of the vote.:310 The only other candidate, Najeeb Qahtan Al-Sha'abi, was the son of Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi, a former President of South Yemen. Though a member of Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party, Najeeb ran as an independent.
After the 1999 elections the Parliament passed a law extending presidential terms from five to seven years, extending parliamentary terms from four to six years, and creating a 111-member, presidentially-appointed council of advisors with legislative power. This move prompted Freedom House to downgrade their rating of political freedom in Yemen from 5 to 6.
In July 2005, during the 27th anniversary celebrations of his presidency, Saleh announced that he would "not contest the [presidential] elections" in September 2006. He expressed hope that "all political parties – including the opposition and the General People's Congress – find young leaders to compete in the elections because we have to train ourselves in the practice of peaceful succession. However, in June 2006, Saleh changed his mind and accepted his party's nomination as the presidential candidate of the GPC, saying that when he initially decided not to contest the elections his aim was "to establish ground for a peaceful transfer of power", but that he was now bowing to the "popular pressure and appeals of the Yemeni people." Political analyst Ali Saif Hasan said he had been "sure [President Saleh] would run as a presidential candidate. His announcement in July 2005 – that he would not run – was exceptional and unusual." Mohammed al-Rubai, head of the opposition supreme council, said the president's decision "show[ed] that the president wasn’t serious in his earlier decision. I wish he hadn’t initially announced that he would step down. There was no need for such farce.
In April 2000, Saleh visited Tehran to cement Iranian-Yemeni military relations, and to support Iran in its dispute with the United Arab Emirates over the Greater and Lesser Tunbs. Saleh, a Shia, prayed at the mausoleum of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini.
The 2003 invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein and created concern in the region that other leaders would follow suit; as a result, on 15 May 2003, Iranian President Mohammed Khatami visited Iran's two regional allies, Syria and Yemen, to strengthen Iran's regional security links.
Iran continued to garner support from Yemen well into December 2010, with Mahmoud Ahmedinejad meeting with Saleh on Iran-Yemen cooperation, whereupon Saleh confirmed his support for Iran's nuclear energy program.
In early 2011, following the Tunisian revolution that resulted in the overthrow of the long-time Tunisian president, opposition parties attempted to the do the same in Yemen. Opposition started leading protesters and demanding Saleh to end his three-decade-long rule because of his perceived lack of democratic reform, widespread corruption and the claimed human rights abuses carried out by him and his allies.
On 2 February 2011, facing a major national uprising, Saleh announced that he would not seek re-election in 2013, but would serve out the remainder of his term. In response to government violence against unarmed protesters, eleven MPs of Saleh's party resigned on 23 February. By 5 March, this number had increased to 13, as well as the addition of two deputy ministers.On 10 March 2011, Saleh announced a referendum on a new constitution, separating the executive and legislative powers. On 18 March, at least 52 people were killed and over 200 injured by government forces when unarmed demonstrators were fired upon in the university square in Sana'a. The president claimed that his security forces weren't at the location, and blamed local residents for the massacre.
Saleh fired his entire Cabinet on 20 March 2011, but asked them to remain as a caretaker cabinet until he could form a new government. On 22 March, Saleh warned that any attempt at overthrowing him would result in civil war.
On 3 June, 2011, Saleh was injured in an RPG attack on his presidential compound, which killed four body guards and injured the prime minister, deputy prime minister, and the governor of Sanaa. The man responsible for speaking at Saleh's public events was reported killed. Saleh suffered burns and shrapnel injuries, but survived, a result that was confirmed by an audio message he sent to state media in which he condemned the attack, but his voice clearly revealed that he was having difficulty in speaking. Government officials tried to downplay the attack by saying he was lightly wounded. The next day he was taken to a military hospital in Saudi Arabia for treatment. According to U.S. government officials, Saleh suffered a collapsed lung and burns on about 40 percent of his body. A Saudi official said that Saleh has undergone two operations: one to remove the shrapnel and a neurosurgery on his neck.
On 4 June 2011, Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi was appointed as acting President, while Saleh remained the President of Yemen.
Saleh said on 8 October 2011, in comments broadcast on Yemeni state television, that he would step down "in the coming days". The opposition expressed skepticism, however, and a government minister said Saleh meant that he would leave power under the framework of a Gulf Cooperation Council initiative to transition toward democracy.
On 23 November 2011, Saleh flew to Riyadh in neighbouring Saudi Arabia to sign the Gulf Co-operation Council plan for political transition, which he had previously spurned. Upon signing the document, he agreed to legally transfer the office and powers of the presidency to his deputy, Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi.
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