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Arab National Liberation Front

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The Arab National Liberation Front (Arabic: جبهة التحرير الوطني العربية, abbreviated ANLF) was an exile-based Saudi opposition movement. ANLF was founded in Cairo in December 1962, through the merger of the National Liberation Front(جبهة التحرير الوطني) and the Free Princes Movement.[1][2] Talal bin Abdulaziz became the general secretary of ANLF.[2] The formation of a 15-member political bureau was announced when the organization was founded.[3]

The ANLF had a politically mixed membership, gathering Talal's Egypt-based Free Princes Movement, Nasserists, Ba'athists, the Beirut-based Organization of Saudi Communists and Shia religious leaders.[4][5][6][7] The ANLF was formed as a competitor to the Union of the Peoples of the Arabian Peninsula (UPAP), a group that was founded by Saudi dissident Nasser Al Saeed to confront the Saudi regime militarily via Yemen.[1][8] However, in 1962 the UPAP joined the ANLF, although it lasted for a short time.[1]

The programme of ANLF called for a referendum on the question of the role of the monarchy, constitutional democratic reforms, gender equality, land reform, non-alignment in international affairs and revision of oil agreements.[2] The ANLF had a regular column in the Beirut publication al-Kifah, called 'Voice of the Front'.[2] Declarations in the name of ANLF were broadcast on Egyptian, Syrian and Yemeni radio stations, calling for the overthrow of the Saudi regime.[9]

In August 1963 Talal's group broke away from ANLF and begun to seek reconciliation with the royal house, after which the NLF reconstituted itself.[2] The NLF continued to function until August 1974, eventually being replaced by the Communist Party in Saudi Arabia in 1975.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Mordechai Abir (1988). Saudi Arabia in the oil era: regime and elites: conflict and collaboration. Westview Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-8133-0643-8.
  2. ^ a b c d e Alexei Vassiliev (1 September 2013). The History of Saudi Arabia. Saqi. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-86356-779-7.
  3. ^ Anita L. P. Burdett (1997). Records of Saudi Arabia, 1961-1965: 1962. Archive Editions. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-85207-770-9.
  4. ^ Toby Matthiesen (22 December 2014). The Other Saudis. Cambridge University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-107-04304-6.
  5. ^ Sharaf Sabri (2001). The House of Saud in Commerce: A Study of Royal Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia. Sharaf Sabri. p. 114. ISBN 978-81-901254-0-6.
  6. ^ Nazih Ayubi (1995). Over-Stating the Arab State: Politics and Society in the Middle East. I.B.Tauris. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-85043-828-1.
  7. ^ a b Albert Hourani; Philip Shukry Khoury; Mary Christina Wilson (1993). The Modern Middle East: A Reader. University of California Press. p. 597. ISBN 978-0-520-08241-0.
  8. ^ James Wynbrandt (14 May 2014). A Brief History of Saudi Arabia. Infobase Publishing. p. 223. ISBN 978-1-4381-0830-8.
  9. ^ Mordechai Abir (19 December 2013). Saudi Arabia: Society, Government and the Gulf Crisis. Routledge. pp. 44–48. ISBN 978-1-317-79934-4.
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