The "separation" strategy... Houthi wars against the economy of the liberated areas
English - Tuesday 28 February 2023 الساعة 08:45 am
Aden, NewsYemen, Ammar Ali Ahmed:
The uproar caused by the recent statements of the President of the Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, on the southern issue, revived the discourse of northern elites about the fate of Yemeni unity in light of the southerners' adherence and insistence on restoring their state and returning to pre-1990 .
As usual, the discourse emanating from the elites of the north is limited to the difference in their position on the Houthis and the ongoing conflict, in an attempt to portray that the demand for disengagement is a political demand for the Southern Transitional Council that it is trying to impose by force of arms, and that the conviction of the people of the south is still with unity.
The northern elites' preoccupation with trying to assert "unity" in the south ignores the facts of the "separatist" behavior practiced by the Houthi group over the past years to consolidate a state of its own in the north, and to economically target the liberated areas, the majority of which are in the south, after its inability to return to it.
The chapters of this targeting were summarized in one of the paragraphs of the recently issued report of the Committee of Experts on Yemen of the Security Council, where it talks about the Houthis adopting a strategic plan to target the economic capabilities of the legitimate government, and said that it led to economic instability in the areas controlled by the legitimate government in Yemen.
Among these measures taken by Al-Houthi - according to the report - banning the local currency issued by the central bank in Aden, adopting policies to divide the banking and economic sectors, attacking the assets of Aden-based communication companies, threatening and attacking ports and ships operating in the export of oil, and passing a new law to ban Interest on banking and commercial transactions.
The report confirms that these "economic obstacles, in addition to the military attacks launched by the Houthis, constitute a serious threat to peace, security and stability in Yemen," and that this "requires urgent international intervention," according to the Committee of Experts, which in its recommendations calls on the parties to the conflict in Yemen to stop For everything that reinforces the economic and banking division, the Houthi group demands in this regard to accept the currency issued by the Central Bank in Aden.
Since the report of the Committee of Experts is related to a specific period of time, which is last year (January-December 2022), the report did not include the latest chapters of the Houthi strategic plan to target the economy of the liberated areas, which it began implementing since the beginning of this year. With the aim of striking the activity of the commercial ports in these areas, two months after targeting the oil ports.
The Houthi group has completely prevented the arrival of imported goods from ports and ports in the liberated areas to its areas of control, and forced merchants and companies to sign a commitment to transfer the import process to the ports of Hodeidah under its control, after failing to achieve this for years by imposing additional customs on these goods.
The Houthi group's prevention was not limited to imported goods, but has recently reached its point of preventing the entry of cement produced from factories operating in the liberated areas into its areas of control, with the aim of forcing merchants to import it from abroad, which reveals the ferocity of the dirty economic war waged by Iran's arm in Yemen.
A dirty economic war waged by the group with a clear "separatist" nature towards everything related to the liberated areas and the capital, Aden, without being met with a similar reaction from the other side. The products of the north find their way to Aden and the south without being treated as products coming from a foreign country, and the south is still And the liberated areas are an open market for all "Sana'a" companies such as banks, banks and telecommunications.
Facts The current scene in Yemen presents its reality, with the south still linked to the reality imposed by the "unity state" without real "separatist" behavior on the ground targeting the north, land and people, and between a "separatist" authority run by the Houthi group from Sana'a and constantly seeking to target the south militarily and economically. After securing its grip on the North, whose elites are trying to portray another imaginary scene through their empty noises in the name of "Unity".
