Oman and Yemen's booby-traps... the silent danger in the war against militias

English - Monday 07 June 2021 الساعة 03:45 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, Exclusive:

 For years, Yemenis, "whether they are elites or others of the public," have avoided opening the file of Omani support for the Houthi militia, which has become visible and public, bypassing the secret boxes and the ingenuity of the intelligence arms in implementing this support.

This Yemeni position is due to the neighborly relationship and a special place reserved for the Sultanate of Oman in the Yemeni mentality in the past, as a country that is impartial in its relations with the countries of the region and its issues and from the files of neighboring countries.

The Yemenis maintained the position of the Sultanate and its political leadership in the reserved position, which is a position of friendliness and respect. However, the Omani side, as an authority and regime, sided with the Houthi militia against the majority of the Yemeni people and its political and social components, and did not take into account its image and position among Yemenis and the importance of avoiding antagonizing them as neighbors and geographical partners.

Oman’s support for the Houthi militia is no longer confined to the political aspect, and the Sultanate has turned into a window for the militias to the world. Rather, the Sultanate has played the role of the most important carrier and owner of the most dangerous military facilities between the source of support, Tehran, and the recipient of support, the Houthi militia.

The Sultanate was granted by Sanaa a privilege that may have had its own circumstances and data related to weaving relations with the components of the Mahri society, and the official Yemeni interaction with this soft and strong influence was calculated by the decision-makers in Sana’a as a kind of interests that the neighboring Mahri society deserves for the Sultanate of Oman.  However, the Sultanate has invested this privilege in favor of other projects and an agenda that serve Tehran and target countries in the region before Yemen.

While Oman supports the Houthi militia, which raises the slogan that the fighting on the kingdom’s borders is a project to restore Yemeni lands over which an agreement between the two countries ruled Riyadh’s sovereignty, it ignores a similar agreement that enabled the Sultanate to acquire Yemeni geography after years of war fought by the Dhofar Liberation Front to control these areas looted by Oman before the border demarcation agreement between the two countries.

Oman jumped to Taiz to strengthen the Muslim Brotherhood militarily against the south and against the Emirates, as you think, and opened the crossing points for Iranian support for the Houthis in Sana’a against Riyadh, and in return it works hard to prevent the presence of legitimacy in Mahra, and the situation has reached the point of arming tribes in Mahra to expel what it calls the Saudi occupation.  Al-Mahra, a presence of the coalition aimed at drying up the sources of military support for the Houthis through the eastern gate of Yemen.

The Sultanate of Oman did not serve the path of a political solution by virtue of its influence on the Houthi militia, and all it accomplishes is mediating the release of prisoners or passing the travel of Houthi leaders or Iranian officers to Sana’a, and the arrival of Tehran’s ambassador to Sanaa, Revolutionary Guards officer Hassan Irloo, is good evidence of this negative role.

In previous periods, the Omani movement reached Shabwa governorate, when the Shabwa Elite Forces were securing the governorate. However, with the Brotherhood’s invasion of the governorate two years ago, this movement declined to enhance the Brotherhood’s influence and strengthen their grip on the governorate.

The Sultanate of Oman is active in strengthening the Brotherhood’s presence against the south and strengthening the Houthis’ control over the north.

Here, it is establishing a war path that paves the way for the Houthi militias to swallow up all of Yemen by striking the components that are fighting the Houthis in some of them and opening side battles to disperse the united effort against the central enemy of the people represented by the Houthi militia.

The silence of the Yemenis over what the Sultanate of Oman is doing in their country must end. It is a role no less than the Iranian role and its danger is greater, because the Sultanate is a border country with Yemen that has many cards to detonate the situation in Yemen, and confronting this Omani activity requires linking it to the Iranian role and confronting it with all available means.

If the eastern gate of the Arabs “Iraq” has caused Tehran to bypass it in drowning Mesopotamia and the Levant in the Persian quagmire and trap the border strip of the Gulf states with Iraq with many dangers, then negligence in securing the eastern gate of Yemen means opening all of Yemen to form the second part of the Persian cordon  on the area.