Babrak Karmal government. Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, said, "The main reason that there has been no national consolidation so far is that Comrade Karmal is hoping to continue sitting in Kabul with our help." Karmal's position became less secure when the Soviet leadership began blaming him for the failures in Afghanistan. Gorbachev, worried over the situation, told the Soviet Politburo "If we don't change approaches [to evacuate Afghanistan], we will be fighting there for another 20 or 30 years." It is not clear when the Soviet leadership began to
Sultan Mohammed Ali al-Kitbi since the 1990s. He served with peacekeeping missions in Somalia and Kosovo. During the Saudi Arabian-led coalition's intervention in the Yemeni civil war, Al-Kitbi took part in Operation "Restoring Hope" and was involved in the fighting to capture the city of Taiz, in southern Yemen. He was killed in a rocket attack by Houthi rebels on Monday, 14 December 2015, near Taiz along with Saudi Arabian colonel Abdullah al-Sahian. His body was later returned to the UAE. Al-Kitbi had seven children. His brother is a former member of the Federal National Council. Sultan Mohammed Ali al-Kitbi Sultan Mohammed Ali al-Kitbi