Extortion is one of the Houthi goals of arresting US embassy employees
English - Sunday 28 November 2021 الساعة 03:45 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, Exclusive:
Political sources in the capital, Sanaa, said that the arrest of a number of local employees of the US embassy in Sanaa and employees of the United Nations by the Houthi militia, the Iranian arm in Yemen, is a form of blackmail practiced by the militias with the Americans and with the United Nations.
The Houthi militia had arrested about thirty local employees working at the American embassy in Sanaa after it was stormed by militia gunmen, before releasing them early this week, but sources indicated that the militias had arrested three of the employees again.
While the Houthi militias tried to justify their storming and arresting of the embassy employees on allegations of interruption of their salaries, according to the explanation of the militia leader and member of the so-called political council run by the militias, Muhammad Ali al-Houthi on his Twitter page.
However, the sources who spoke to NewsYemen revealed that the militias stormed the embassy suddenly and arrested thirty of the local staff, is blackmailing the Americans, as it did in earlier times.
The sources said: The Houthis' arrest of embassy employees coincided with their detention of United Nations employees, as well as their implementation of political and media campaigns and mass rallies, claiming that America is behind the military and economic escalation.
Noting that these allegations are only for the media and local consumption of their supporters, and as a means to assist them in mobilizing fighters.
The sources said that the real goals behind the Houthi militia's arrest of local US embassy employees are "extortion linked to their pursuit of a barter process through which they obtain American promises to pressure the coalition to allow an Omani plane to carry out a flight between Muscat and Sana'a so that they can return a number of militia leaders and their wounded who were expelled in earlier period."
At the same time, a number of new leaders were taken out with their families, as well as some of the wounded, to receive treatment in Iran, Oman and Lebanon.
The sources confirm that this method has previously been used by the militias during the past years, noting that the United States pressured the coalition to allow flights between Muscat and Sana’a with planes belonging to the Royal Air Force, which is not subject to any inspection and the coalition is not informed of any information about travelers on those flights in exchange for the Houthi militias’ release On the authority of citizens of the United States, or employees of its embassy, referring in this regard to the incident of the militias’ arrest of three employees of the Washington embassy in 2017, who were released in exchange for allowing the return of a number of wounded and militia leaders from Oman and the expulsion of others to the Sultanate via a flight between Sana’a and Muscat.
The sources explained that the same objectives are related to the militias’ detention of United Nations employees, as the militias seek to blackmail the Swedish UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, especially after the latter went to put pressure on the militias by trying to prevent the use of United Nations flights to the airport. Sanaa from transferring any Houthi leaders or personalities, as was the case during the past period, especially during the British Martin Griffith's assumption of his duties as envoy to Yemen.
It is worth noting that the methods of extortion practiced by the Houthi militias, especially with the Americans and the United Nations and its organizations, are repeated every year in the same way, which raises many questions about the reasons and justifications for the Americans or the United Nations and its organizations meeting the Houthi demands, which are carried out in this way based on the practice of extortion and violation of people’s rights without any legal justification.
