and hostile. The South was supported by the Eastern bloc. The North, however, wasn't able to get the same connections. In 1972, the two states fought a war. The war was resolved with a ceasefire and negotiations brokered by the Arab League, where it was declared that unification would eventually occur. In 1978, Ali Abdallah Saleh was named as president of the Yemen Arab Republic. After the war, the North complained about the South's help from foreign countries, which included Saudi Arabia. In 1979, fighting erupted between the North and the South. There were renewed efforts to unite the two states. In 1986, thousands died in the South, when a civil war erupted between supporters of former president Abdul Fattah Ismail and his successor, Ali Nasser Muhammad. Ali Nasser Muhammad fled the country and was later sentenced to death for treason. Unification In 1990, the two governments reached a full agreement on the joint governing of Yemen, and the countries were merged on 22 May 1990 with Saleh as President. The President of South Yemen, Ali Salim al-Beidh, became Vice-President. A unified parliament was formed and a unity constitution was agreed upon. In the 1993 parliamentary election, the first held after unification, the General People's Congress won 122 of 301 seats. After the invasion of Kuwait crisis in 1990, Yemen's President opposed military intervention from non-Arab states. As a member of the United Nations Security Council for 1990 and 1991, Yemen abstained on a number of UNSC resolutions concerning Iraq and Kuwait and voted against the "use of force resolution". The vote outraged the U.S. Saudi Arabia expelled 800,000 Yemenis in 1990 and 1991 to punish Yemen for its opposition to the war. Following food riots in major towns in 1992, a new coalition government made up of the ruling parties from both the former Yemeni states was formed in 1993. However, Vice-President al-Beidh withdrew to Aden in August 1993 and said he would not return to the government until his grievances were addressed. These included northern violence against his Yemeni Socialist Party, as well as the economic marginalization of the south. Negotiations to end the political deadlock dragged on into 1994. The government of Prime Minister Haydar Abu Bakr Al-Attas became ineffective due to political infighting An accord between northern and southern leaders was signed in Amman, Jordan on 20 February 1994, but this could not stop the civil