340 • 18 WAR AND THE QUEST FOR PEACEtwo states' politics did gradually converge during the 1980s, and they
united as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. The union has not been com¬
plete; a bitter civil war broke out between Aden (backed by Saudi Arabia)
and the rest of the Yemen Republic in 1994. Deep rifts endure in this sup¬
posedly unified country.
Iraq
In Iraq, Abd al-Rahman Arif (who in 1966 had replaced his brother, Abd
al-Salam, killed in a plane crash) was ousted by a rightist coup in July
- Two weeks later another Ba'th Party splinter group seized power in
Baghdad. The new regime soon quarreled with Syria over Euphrates River
water rights, even though both states were ruled by the Ba'th Party. Rela¬
tions with Iran were strained because both countries wanted to control
the Shatt al-Arab, where the Tigris and the Euphrates meet before empty¬
ing into the Persian Gulf. Iraq attacked Egypt and Jordan for having ac¬
cepted Resolution 242, which tacitly recognized Israel. Kurds in northern
Iraq went on fighting for their independence, and the government tried to
distract popular opinion at home by publicly hanging fourteen convicted
Israeli spies (nine of them Jewish) in Baghdad. A tentative settlement with
the Kurds in 1970 did not last; Iraq accused the shah of Iran of arming
Kurdish rebels. As the Kurdish rebellion increasingly threatened Iraq's
control over its oil-rich northern provinces, Baghdad moved toward a
pro-Iranian policy. Meeting with the shah in 1975, Iraqi Vice President
Saddam Husayn conceded to Iran sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab on
the Iranian side of its deepest channel, in return for Iran's cutting off all
aid to the Kurdish rebels. The Kurdish rebellion subsided for a time but re¬
vived in the late 1980s.
Libya
In 1969 military coups overthrew moderate governments in Somalia, Libya,
and the Sudan. The most noteworthy was Libya's revolution, which brought
to power an impetuous, articulate, and devout army colonel named
Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi. This young officer emerged as the new champion of
militant Arab nationalism. He persuaded the Americans and the British to
evacuate their air bases in Libya, made all tourists carry travel documents
written in Arabic, and volunteered his army for duty alongside Nasir's on
the Suez Canal and the fidaiyin in Jordan and Lebanon. Nasir liked the
Libyan revolutionary, who reminded him of himself as a young officer, be¬
fore he had aged prematurely from fighting Zionism and imperialism.