AHC: An Independent Dhofar

[Enigmajones]

So if you don't know what Dhofar is, it is currently the southern most province of Oman, bordering Yemen. From 1963 to 1976, the people of Dhofar rebelled against the Sultanate of Oman and Muscat. Apparently Dhofar was a personal fief of the Sultan and was being run into the ground. As a result, the people of Dhofar rebelled. Dhofar, was backed by South Yemen, the USSR and China, while Oman was supported directly by the UK, Iran and Jordan, and softly by the UAE.

So the challenge, with any POD after 1960, is to have an independent Dhofar.

 

[ahmedali]

In fact, the success of the uprising does not mean that Dhofar is independent, but that it will join as part of South Yemen

Because Greater Yemen, as defined by the communist Yemeni nationalists, included Dhofar as a Yemeni land

No one from Oman rebelled, but most of the rebels were Yemenis

 

[Enigmajones]

In fact, the success of the uprising does not mean that Dhofar is independent, but that it will join as part of South Yemen

Because Greater Yemen, as defined by the communist Yemeni nationalists, included Dhofar as a Yemeni land

No one from Oman rebelled, but most of the rebels were Yemenis

So you would say that the people of Dhofar consider themselves Yemeni?

 

[ahmedali]

So you would say that the people of Dhofar consider themselves Yemeni?

Neither the original people of Dhofar are Omani and they did not want to become Yemeni

The communists in Dhofar were Yemeni communist infiltrators who provoked a communist uprising, taking advantage of the fact that Oman at that time was a very backward country.

The actual Omani opponents against the sultan were the Imamis (theocrats).

And these, from the point of view of the communists, were more reactionary than the Sultan, especially as they wanted to return to the Sharia and make the Imam the ruler of Oman (basically a mixture of Khomeini’s Iran and the Papal States).

(It is paradoxical that they were much more painful to the Omani government than the communists, and also one of the few things that Saudi Arabia and Nasserite Egypt agreed on besides hostility to Israel is hostility to the Omani government and support of the Omani Imam against the Omani Sultan)