The policy of starvation and subjugation... Houthi miscalculations turned into a spark of popular anger
تاريخ النشر: 7th, September 2023 GMT
Over the past years, the Houthi militias, Iran's arm in Yemen, have been pursuing a policy of starvation and subjugation to impose their grip and consolidate their influence against the residents of the governorates under their control.
With the deterioration of the situation and the increase in the severity of famine among citizens, and the continued theft of employees’ salaries over a period of 8 years, this failed policy became the spark of anger that incited the people to raise their voice to demand stolen rights despite the threats and intimidations issued by the Houthi leaders against those who demand their rights.
Houthi intransigence and the refusal to pay employee salaries, especially the salaries of male and female teachers, academics and administrators at government universities in Sanaa, created a broad public and trade union movement, the first of its kind since the militia’s coup in 2014, in light of the worsening suffering in the areas of the coup and the continuation of the truce that did not bring any tangible positive results in the lives of Population.
For the eighth week in a row, the comprehensive strike of male and female teachers continues in response to the call of the “Teachers Club,” which confirmed the continuation of peaceful protests to demand the regular payment of salaries on a monthly basis and the rest of the dues and bonuses that have been cut off for years.
The teachers' strike coincided with great popular discontent and repeated demands to reject the policy of starvation and subjugation pursued by the Houthi militias to achieve their own goals and agenda. This discontent aroused the ire of the Houthi leaders, who were quick to issue provocative statements against those demanding the payment of their salaries.
The leader, Muhammad Ali Al-Houthi, from within Saada Governorate, described those demanding salaries as “foolish and crazy,” while the group’s leader, Mahdi Al-Mashat, described the movements of those demanding salaries as “demagogues, traitors, agents, and fools,” vowing to “deter them.”
The public emotional statements of the first-ranking leaders of the Houthi gang did not come out of nowhere. But it stems from its feeling of serious threats as a result of popular pressure led by unions and professional clubs for teachers and academics in Sanaa. These statements also confirm the state of confusion and anxiety that the group is experiencing after the failure of the policy of subjugation and starvation that it has pursued over the past years.
Houthi intransigence is matched by a popular pledge to escalate and expand the strike to extract rights by legitimate means. While activists launched calls on social media to organize protests and popular demonstrations to support the uprising of teachers and academics to obtain their cut salaries.
The area of popular discontent and disapproval has expanded into a real clash on the ground, an indication of the state of collective rejection of the Houthi project, which spreads false and sectarian ideas imported from Iran.
The sources said that worshipers at the Sunnah Mosque in the village of Dhuqaban in Al-Asha District, Amran Governorate, expelled a Houthi supervisor from the mosque after he attempted to give a lecture after the Maghrib prayer, pointing out that citizens refused to continue with the lies and quackery promoted by the Houthi militias and their sectarian leaders.
The sources added that the supervisor returned with military crews loaded with armed elements to storm the mosque, looted the mosque’s library, arrested four people from Dhu Qa’ban, and took them to the Al-Asha District Security Department. This mobilized the tribes of Dhuqaban to reject this oppressive policy before a calm mediation took place between the tribes and the militias.
In Al-Jawf, robberies and plundering of citizens’ lands and farms and attacks against tribesmen led to To an armed revolution against the Houthi militias. Violent clashes recently broke out between armed groups from the Hamdan tribes, “Al Saleh,” and the so-called security forces of the Houthi militia, led by the dynastic leader known as “Abu Najib Al-Sharif,” in the vicinity of Al-Hazm Market, the center of Al-Jawf Governorate (northeast of Yemen).
The clashes took place with various types of weapons near the Hamadan Bridge, south of Al-Hazm Market. It escalated when the militia attacked citizens’ homes in the Al-Safiya area, southwest of the city. Amidst the tribes' mobilization to confront the Houthi attacks, which led to the killing of a number of Houthi members and the burning of their military vehicles.
The escalating tribal rejection of the violations has reached Saada Governorate, the main stronghold of the militias. Armed confrontations renewed between the Bani Hudhayfah tribes and Houthi groups affiliated with the leader “Abu Ali al-Hakim,” in Dahyan, Majz District, Saada.
The clashes came after an attempt by the so-called “Abu Ali Al-Hakim” to seize the lands of the Bani Hudhayfah tribes located on the outskirts of Dahyan. This attempt faced a harsh reaction from the tribes, causing the death of one of the ruler’s companions and three others, in addition to a number of wounded.
The tribal unrest continues in Saada, amid the influx of a number of supporters and advocates of the Bani Hudhayfah tribe to support their sons and work to prevent the Houthi leader, “Abu Ali al-Hakem,” from controlling the farms.
المصدر: نيوزيمن
كلمات دلالية: of the Houthi
إقرأ أيضاً:
A mysterious airstrip built on a Yemeni island comes as Houthi rebels are increasingly squeezed
A new airstrip is being built on a volcanic island in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, satellite images show, likely the latest project by forces allied to those opposed to the country’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
The airstrip on Zuqar Island provides yet another link in a network of offshore bases in a region key to international shipping, where the Houthis already have attacked over 100 ships, sank four vessels and killed at least nine mariners during the Israel-Hamas war.
It could give a military force the ability to conduct aerial surveillance over the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the strategic, narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the two waterways off East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
Still, it remains unclear what would trigger the airstrip to be used for a military campaign. The United Arab Emirates, which has built other runways in the region, did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did Yemen’s anti-Houthi forces, divided by warring interests and unable to launch a coordinated assault against the rebels even after intense American and Israeli bombing campaigns that targeted them.
In recent months, the anti-Houthi forces have been able to interdict more cargo bound for the Houthis, something that having a presence on Zuqar could aid.
“The possibility of a new Yemeni offensive against the Houthis, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, can’t be ruled out, although I don’t see it as approaching,” said Eleonora Ardemagni, an analyst at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies who long has studied Yemen.
“There’s a more important point in my view regarding the build up in Zuqar: the countering of Houthis’ smuggling activities, with particular regard to weapons,” she said.
A runway on a strategic island
Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press show the construction of a nearly 2,000-meter (6,560-foot) runway on Zuqar Island, which is some 90 kilometers (55 miles) southeast of the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida, a key shipping hub.
The images show work began in April to build out a dock on the island, then land clearing along the site of the runway. By late August, what appears to be asphalt was being laid across the runway. Images from October show the work continuing, with runway markings painted on in the middle of the month.
No one has claimed the construction. However, ship-tracking data analyzed by the AP show the Batsa, a Togolese-flagged bulk carrier registered to a Dubai-based maritime firm, spent nearly a week alongside the new dock at Zuqar Island after coming from Berbera in Somaliland, the site of a DP World port. DP World declined to comment.
A Dubai-based maritime company, Saif Shipping and Marine Services, acknowledged receiving an order to deliver the asphalt to the island likely used in the airstrip’s construction on behalf of other UAE-based firms. Other Emirates-based maritime firms have been associated with other airstrip construction projects in Yemen later tied back to the UAE.
The UAE is believed to be behind multiple runway projects in recent years in Yemen. In Mocha on the Red Sea, a project to extend that city’s airport now allows it to land far larger aircraft. Local officials attributed that project to the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai. There is also now a runway in nearby Dhubab.
Another runway is on Abd al-Kuri Island, in the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. And in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait itself, another runway built by the UAE is on Mayun Island. An anti-Houthi secessionist force in Yemen known as the Southern Transitional Council, which has long been backed by the UAE, controls the island and has acknowledged the UAE’s role in building the airport.
Targeting of Houthi shipments
Zuqar Island is a strategic location in the Red Sea. Eritrea captured the island in 1995 after battling Yemeni forces. An international court in 1998 placed the island formally into Yemen’s custody.
The island again found itself engulfed by war after the Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014 and began a march south, when the rebels took Zuqar.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE entered the war in 2015 on behalf of the country’s exiled government, stopping the Houthi advance. They also beat back the Houthis from Zuqar, retaking the island, which has become a staging ground for naval forces loyal to Tariq Saleh, a nephew of Yemen’s late strongman leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The younger Saleh, once allied to the Houthis before his uncle switched sides and the rebels killed him, has been backed by the UAE.
Since then, the front lines of the war have been static for years.
What changed was the Houthis’ taking their campaign globally with attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. That continued even after a weekslong campaign of intense airstrikes known as Operation Rough Rider launched by the United States and continued strikes by Israel, which appear to be getting closer to the Houthis’ top leadership despite the rebels’ penchant for secrecy.
“The Houthis, like any insurgent group, win by not losing,” wrote Gregory D. Johnsen, a Yemen expert, in June. “It is how the group has survived and grown from each of its wars.”
While a loose confederation of anti-Houthi groups exists, it remains fragmented and did not launch any attacks during the U.S. airstrikes. But the growing network of air bases around Yemen comes as anti-Houthi forces have made several significant seizures of weapons, likely bound for the rebels — including one large haul that was praised by the U.S. military’s Central Command.
“A likely Emirati airstrip in Zuqar could serve to improve surveillance and monitoring off the Hodeida coast to better support Yemeni forces in tackling smuggling,” Ardemagni said.
«البحوث الزراعية» يطلق الملتقى الثقافي الثاني لتعزيز الحجر الزراعي وسلامة الغذاء