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Muhammad Ahmed Miftah

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Muhammad Ahmed Miftah
محمد أحمد مفتاح
Muhammad Ahmed Miftah in 2025
Acting Prime Minister of Yemen
(Supreme Political Council)
Disputed[a]
Assumed office
30 August 2025
PresidentMahdi al-Mashat
Preceded byAhmed al-Rahawi
Deputy Prime Minister of Yemen
(Supreme Political Council)
Incumbent
Assumed office
10 August 2024
PresidentMahdi al-Mashat
Prime MinisterAhmed al-Rahawi
Personal details
Born1967 (age 57–58)
Al Haymah Al Kharijiyah district, Sanaa Governorate, Yemen Arab Republic
Political partyAl-Haqq

Muhammad Ahmed Miftah[b][1] (born 1967) is a Yemeni politician. Born in the al-Haymah district of Sanaa Governorate,[2] he is a prominent cleric, scholar and jurist in the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam, which is subscribed to by the Houthis.[3]

He received his basic education at the martyr Al-Sabri School in Al-Hayma, and began from a young age to give sermons in the mosque of his village and some mosques in the district. He moved to Sanaa to continue his formal education at the Kuwait High School, then the Sanaa Scientific Institute and the Faculty of Education at Sanaa University, where he graduated in 1993, and then joined the teaching staff at the Ministry of Education with the organization of seminars to teach Shariah sciences in several mosques. He was finally put in charge of giving sermons and giving lectures at the Al-Rawdah mosque in Sanaa. He taught and gave lectures in various Yemeni governorates.[4]

During the Houthi insurgency in Saada Governorate, he publicly voiced condemnation of the government's actions in the conflict.[5] In September 2004, he was arrested as he was leading prayers in the al-Rawdah Grand Mosque in Sanaa.[6] He was charged alongside another Zaydi cleric on accusations of supporting the Houthis and plotting to overthrow the local government, and were using a front group called the Sanaa Youth Organization to achieve this.[7] Both of them contested the claims and maintained that they had only advocated for peaceful dissent.[5] Miftah was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment in May 2005 for "having contacts with the state of Iran with the aim of harming the diplomatic and political position of Yemen",[7] but was pardoned by President Ali Abdullah Saleh in May 2006.[8] As member of Al-Haqq, he was again arrested in 2008.[9]

As part of a government reshuffle, on 10 August 2024 he was named First Deputy Prime Minister of the Houthi-affiliated Government of Change and Construction,[10] where he was considered more powerful than al-Rahawi.[11] On 30 August 2025, he was sworn in as Prime Minister, after his predecessor, Ahmed al-Rahawi, was killed in an Israeli strike.[12]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Tenure as Prime Minister of Yemen disputed by Salem Saleh bin Braik
  2. ^ Arabic: محمد أحمد مفتاح

References

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  1. ^ Ahmed, Adnan (30 August 2025). "من هو؟ الحوثيون يعينون محمد أحمد مفتاح رئيسًا جديدًا لحكومتهم بعد مقتل سلفه في غارة إسرائيلية" [Who is he? The Houthis appoint Mohammed Ahmed Miftah as the new head of their government after the killing of his predecessor in an Israeli airstrike]. Aden News (in Arabic). Retrieved 30 August 2025.
  2. ^ "الحوثيون يعينون رئيس حكومة جديدا بعد اغتيال الرهوي.. من هو؟" [The Houthis appoint a new prime minister after the assassination of Al-Rahwi. Who is he?]. Sky News Arabia (in Arabic). 30 August 2025. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
  3. ^ Bermudez, Krystal (6 October 2024). "The Houthis' leadership structure". Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
  4. ^ "من هو محمد أحمد مفتاح رئيس الوزراء اليمني الجديد؟ - قناة العالم الاخبارية". www.alalam.ir. Archived from the original on 14 September 2025. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  5. ^ a b "2010 Report on International Religious Freedom". U.S. Department of State. 17 November 2010. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
  6. ^ "Regime and Periphery in Northern Yemen" (PDF). RAND Corporation. 14 April 2010. p. 250. Retrieved 30 August 2025. One well documented example is the September 2004 arrest of Muhammad Miftah, the prayer leader of Sana'a's Rawda Mosque
  7. ^ a b Al-Mahdi, Khaled (30 May 2005). "Yemen Preacher Gets Death for Spying, Supporting Rebellion". Arab News. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
  8. ^ "Yemen releases radical clerics". United Press International. 22 May 2006. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
  9. ^ "Yemen: The arrest of Mr. Muhammad Muftah, the chairperson of "Alhaq" party (Shura) council (*) | Alkarama".
  10. ^ Coombs, Casey (16 October 2024). "Politics and Diplomacy - The Yemen Review, Quarterly: July-September 2024". Sana'a Center For Strategic Studies. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
  11. ^ Ben Ari, Lior; Yehoshua, Yosi; Zeitun, Yoav (30 August 2025). "כוורת השרים שחוסלו בתימן, איום הנשיא החות'י - ומי הוא ראש הממשלה החדש?". Ynet (in Hebrew). Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  12. ^ "President Al-Mashat meets Scholar Miftah, appoints him as Acting Prime Minister". Yemen Extra. 30 August 2025. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
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