ABSTRACT
The Red Sea states—Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, and the Sudan—can serve as bases for naval and air forces that can attack ships moving through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Yemen. The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) also had serious military clashes with Saudi Arabia and unsuccessfully backed the Dhofar rebels in Oman from 1967 to 1975. The assassination and the resulting changes in leadership in both countries helped trigger another round of fighting between the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) and PDRY. Ismail supported a Marxist opposition group in the YAR called the National Democratic Front and provided it with arms and training areas in the PDRY. The military expenditures and arms transfers of the YAR and PDRY serve as little more than a memorial to violence and waste. Somalia responded by providing the Somali nationalists in the Ogaden with arms, bases, and training.
