From a clerk in a court to the owner of 27 companies.. Muhammad Abdul Salam, the mysterious Houthi spokesman

English - Thursday 05 January 2023 الساعة 08:18 am
NewsYemen, written by/ Muhammad Yahya:

Since the terrorist Houthi militia took over the joints of the state, Muhammad Abdul Salam, the official spokesman for the Iranian arm in Yemen and the head of its negotiating delegation, managed to accumulate huge wealth, and today he controls most of the economic sectors in Yemen, in addition to managing an internal and external financial network.

The spokesman for the coup militia controls 27 companies with various tasks, starting with oil services, commercial and investment institutions, import and export, contracting, education and exchange, according to the report of the Yemeni Stolen Money Recovery Initiative team.

The Houthis own three oil companies that manage the entire oil sector (import - export - black market), the largest of which is the "Yemen Life" company owned by Mohammed Abdul Salam, who is currently working with an Iranian and Omani financial group to establish a commercial investment bank in Muscat, with approximately $400 million.  With the aim of money laundering in the Sultanate of Oman.

 Hide behind a pseudonym

The personality of "Muhammad Abdel Salam" was surrounded by a lot of ambiguity, especially after he appeared as a spokesman for the Houthi group in the fourth war between the state and the Houthi rebels in 2007.

There has been a lot of controversy in the Yemeni media for years about the identity of the official spokesman for the Houthis, as he who identified himself as "Mohammed Abdel Salam" remained a vague figure, who only appears through vocal statements, in which he expresses the positions of his group.

"Muhammad Abdel Salam" benefited from working under this pseudonym and hiding his real name, as he succeeded in evading several arrests in which he was released, without the security services knowing that he is the official spokesman for the Houthis, who appears through audio statements.

The name "Mohammed Abdel Salam" was nothing but the pseudonym of the Houthi spokesman.  His real name is "Abdulsalam Salah Ahmed Abdullah Fleita," born in the village of Al-Qalaa in the Razih district of Saada governorate, the main stronghold of the Houthi rebels.

 Passionate about Iranian culture

Abd al-Salam studied religious sciences at the hands of his fanatical father of the Jarudi sect, Salah Ahmed Fulaita, before he joined formal education in the schools of the city of Saada.  Then he moved to Sana'a to study at its university, and being from a poor family, he lived in university housing with students from villages and rural areas.

After his return to Saada, he worked in the governorate’s Court of Appeal, before turning to the Iranian carpet trade, and there is a mystery surrounding this period in which he turned from a court clerk to a merchant of Iranian carpets, in what appears to be an early fondness for Iranian culture, which he later sided with.

Abd al-Salam’s upbringing and his study of the Jarudi Shiite sect contributed to his cultural and intellectual formation based on the idea of victimhood, which claims that there is a divine right that was robbed of the Hashemites, who lost their authority in ruling Yemen in 1962.

The former detainee

 In 2009, Abd al-Salam Salah Fleita, who was described at the time as the son of a senior Zaidi scholar in Sanaa, was arrested before he was released in April of the same year, by order of the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who responded to the mediations practiced by senior social figures in Saada governorate, who were  Until that time, it declares its apparent loyalty to the state in its war with the Houthi rebels, led by the famous arms dealer Faris Manna, who was later appointed by the Houthis as governor of Saada governorate.

In November of the same year 2009, months after his release, the controversy over "Muhammad Abdel-Salam" resumed after he announced his death with three of his aides in an air strike that targeted the Houthi media center in Saada, which was run by Abdel-Salam, but it appeared hours later in a phone call.  With Al-Manar TV, which is affiliated with the Lebanese terrorist Hezbollah.

Many facts confirm that the Yemeni intelligence at the time knew that Muhammad Abdul Salam was the same Abdul Salam Salah Fleita, who was released by President Saleh before he was targeted by an air strike in Saada.

Leader of the militia delegation

Abd al-Salam revealed his true personality when he appeared for the first time in video and audio in a television interview in December 2012, broadcast by the nascent Houthi channel, Al-Masirah, which appointed him as chairman of its board of directors.  During the period when the Houthi militia was paving the way for extending its influence outside the Saada governorate, to expand in most of the neighboring governorates.

Starting in 2016, Abd al-Salam led the Houthi negotiating delegations in front of the Yemeni government delegations, and led the group's delegation to the Kuwait talks, and he was scheduled to lead the Houthi delegation in the Geneva consultations that were scheduled for 2018, but the militia deliberately thwarted the negotiations and blocked the way for the chances of ending the war in Yemen.  And the militia delegation refused to participate in the last hours, arguing - as Abdel Salam said - that the delegation's failure to leave Sana'a is due to the obstruction of obtaining the permit for the plane that will take them to the Sweden consultations.