Rashad Muhammad al-Alimi (Arabic:رشاد محمد العليمي,romanized: Rashād Muḥammad al-ʻUlaymī; born 15 January 1954) is a Yemeni politician, and the chairman of thePresidential Leadership Council since April 2022.[2]
Rashad al-Alimi was born on January 15, 1954,[1] in Al-Aloom, a village in theTaiz Governorate,[2] and is the son of judge Mohammed ben Ali al-Alimi. He graduated fromGamal Abdel Nasser High School inSanaa in 1969.[3] He subsequently obtained abachelor's degree inmilitary science from theKuwait Police College in 1975, and another university degree in arts fromSanaa University in 1977, then amaster's degree and adoctorate insociology fromAin Shams University inEgypt between 1984 and 1988.[4]
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A member of theGeneral People's Congress, he wasMinister of the Interior from 2001 to 2008.[3][5][1] He then became Chairman of the Supreme Security Committee andDeputy Prime Minister in charge of Defense and Security Affairs in May 2008, subsequently becoming a member of theYemeni National Dialogue Conference, then adviser to PresidentAbdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in 2014.[4]
On 3 June 2011, during theBattle of Sanaa, al-Alimi was wounded along withAli Abdullah Saleh during an attack on the Al-Nahdin Mosque in thePresidential Palace.[6] He was subsequently transferred toSaudi Arabia andGermany for treatment, before returning to Sanaa on 13 June 2012. He left the city again as a result of theHouthi takeover in Yemen[2] and began living in Saudi Arabia in 2015.[7]
Al-Alimi became Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, a body given the powers of thePresident of Yemen, on 7 April 2022, through a decree by President Hadi, who irreversibly transferred his powers to the council. Multiple sources in theYemeni andSaudi governments stated thatSaudi Arabia, where Hadi was living, forced him to cede power to Alimi.[8][9][10]
On 27 August 2024, al-Alimi made his first official visit toTaiz, the third largest city in Yemen, pledging to liberate the Houthi-controlled areas of the city and end the nine-year longHouthi siege affecting it. He also promised to restore or improve basic services in the city such as power supplies and announced several planned projects with funding from theSaudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen such as a 30 megawatt power plant, a medical school and educational complex atTaiz University and improved roads along the Heijat Al-Abed route.[11]
During a briefing with journalists in Riyadh in January 2024, al-Alimi stated that theairstrike campaign launched earlier in the month by theUnited States and theUnited Kingdom against the Houthis was "defensive", saying that the solution to the Red Sea crisis "is to eliminate the Houthis’ military capabilities.”[12] Al-Alimi hailed US PresidentDonald Trump's re-designation of the Houthis as aforeign terrorist organization on 23 January 2025, calling it "key to accountability and a step toward peace and stability in Yemen and the region."[13]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Interior Minister of Yemen 2001–2008 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded byasPresident of Yemen | — DISPUTED — Chairman of thePresidential Leadership Council of Yemen 2022–present Disputed byMahdi al-Mashat (Supreme Political Council) Reason for dispute: Yemeni Civil War (2014–present) | Incumbent |
| North Yemen (1918–1990) |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Yemen (1967–1990) | |||||
| Republic of Yemen (1990–) | |||||
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| International | |
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| National | |
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