Rashad al-Alimi

Early life and education Rashad al-Alimi was born on 15 January 1954 in Al-Aloom, a village in the Taiz Governorate, He subsequently obtained a bachelor's degree in military science from the Kuwait Police College in 1975, and another university degree in arts from Sanaa University in 1977, then a master's degree and a doctorate in sociology from Ain Shams University in Egypt between 1984 and 1988.

Career

A member of the General People's Congress, he was Minister of the Interior from 2001 to 2008. He was subsequently transferred to Saudi Arabia and Germany for treatment, before returning to Sanaa on 13 June 2012. He left the city again as a result of the Houthi takeover in Yemen

President of Yemen Al-Alimi became Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, a body given the powers of the President of Yemen, on 7 April 2022, through a decree by President Hadi, who irreversibly transferred his powers to the council. Multiple sources in the Yemeni and Saudi governments stated that Saudi Arabia, where Hadi was living, forced him to cede power to al-Alimi.

On 27 August 2024, al-Alimi made his first official visit to Taiz, the third largest city in Yemen, pledging to liberate the Houthi-controlled areas of the city and end the nine-year long Houthi 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 the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen such as a 30 megawatt power plant, a medical school and educational complex at Taiz University and improved roads along the Heijat Al-Abed route.

Al-Alimi and prime minister Salem Saleh bin Braik were reported to have left Aden for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 5 December 2025 following an offensive by the Southern Transitional Council which saw it rapidly take control of most of the former South Yemen. He chaired a meeting of Yemen's National Defence Council in Riyadh on 26 December 2025.

Relationship with the Houthis During a briefing with journalists in Riyadh in January 2024, al-Alimi stated that the airstrike campaign launched earlier in the month by the United States and the United Kingdom against the Houthis was "defensive", saying that the solution to the Red Sea crisis "is to eliminate the Houthis’ military capabilities". Al-Alimi hailed US President Donald Trump's re-designation of the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization on 23 January 2025, calling it "key to accountability and a step toward peace and stability in Yemen and the region."