Five Strongmen, and the Fate of the Arab Spring
- 6 years ago
Five Strongmen, and the Fate of the Arab Spring
The news on Monday that Yemen’s ex-president had been killed is not only a key moment in a country
that is wracked by civil war, torn by a sectarian proxy struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran and the home of what has been called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Ousted in February 2011 after nearly 30 years in power, Mr. Mubarak, 89, once symbolized the unassailable Arab strongman,
and his downfall appeared to signal a political sea change.
Confounding predictions by Western leaders that he was next in line to fall, President Assad has remained in power through a 2011 uprising
that morphed into a civil war, devastated Syria and created a staggering refugee crisis.
Here is a look at what has befallen five leaders in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia
and Yemen, the countries at the center of the political uprisings that began in 2011.
He remained a powerful political personality and later aligned himself in with Yemen’s Houthi
rebels, who have been fighting a Saudi-led military coalition for nearly three years.
Mr. Saleh, considered one of the most cunning autocrats in the Arab world, stepped down in early
2012 after three decades of leading Yemen, the Middle East’s most impoverished country.
The news on Monday that Yemen’s ex-president had been killed is not only a key moment in a country
that is wracked by civil war, torn by a sectarian proxy struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran and the home of what has been called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Ousted in February 2011 after nearly 30 years in power, Mr. Mubarak, 89, once symbolized the unassailable Arab strongman,
and his downfall appeared to signal a political sea change.
Confounding predictions by Western leaders that he was next in line to fall, President Assad has remained in power through a 2011 uprising
that morphed into a civil war, devastated Syria and created a staggering refugee crisis.
Here is a look at what has befallen five leaders in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia
and Yemen, the countries at the center of the political uprisings that began in 2011.
He remained a powerful political personality and later aligned himself in with Yemen’s Houthi
rebels, who have been fighting a Saudi-led military coalition for nearly three years.
Mr. Saleh, considered one of the most cunning autocrats in the Arab world, stepped down in early
2012 after three decades of leading Yemen, the Middle East’s most impoverished country.