ABSTRACT
On 28 October 1972, the "two brothers", Prime Minister Muhsin al-Ayni of the Yemen Arab Republic and Prime Minister Ali Nasser Muhammad Hassani of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen agreed to set up a unified state. In July 1973 the Deputy Commander-in-Chief Colonel Ibrahim Hamdi said that since the agreement had been signed there had been 360 incidents in which 1,000 Yemenis had been killed or wounded, the most important of these was Muhammad Ali Uthman, a firm opponent of union, who had been a member of the Presidency Council since its formation on the fall of Sallal. He was murdered, according to Sanaa, by "elements from across the frontier". Hamdi's hopes of a united Yemen pursuing an independent policy had been decisively checked: his work for unity with Aden was allowed to go by default and Sanaa drifted into becoming a Saudi satellite.
