The government's confusion and the slowness of its measures pave the way for a new economic defeat in favor of Iran's arm
English - Wednesday 01 March 2023 الساعة 03:02 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, exclusive:
Despite the Yemeni government's announcement through the National Defense Council, in October 2022, the classification of the Houthi militia, Iran's arm. A terrorist organization as a prelude to dry up its sources of funding, but what we are witnessing in reality is that it is the terrorist militias who have been able so far to achieve economic gains at the expense of the internationally recognized legitimate government.
The decision to classify the Houthi militia as a terrorist organization came against the background of Iran's bombing of the oil export ports in Shabwa and Hadhramaut. At the time, the Presidential Leadership Council and the government threatened harsher measures if these crimes continued, including suspending the humanitarian and Stockholm armistice agreements that saved the militias in Hodeidah.
Despite this, the Houthi targeting of oil ports continued, causing oil exports to stop permanently and a number of local and international exploration companies to suspend their work until the necessary protection is provided against these threats.
Currently, the legitimacy is waging a new economic war against the Houthi militia, which seeks to deprive it of customs revenues through a series of measures, most notably preventing the entry of goods coming through the port of Aden to its areas of control and forcing merchants to sign pledges to transfer containers of their goods to the port of Hodeidah, which began since the beginning of February to receive Commercial ships after it was only intended to receive oil ships only.
Observers believe that the government's slow actions, along with its confusion and fears of the worsening humanitarian situation, may be the reason for the gains of the Iranian militias, which do not care about the citizens in the areas under their control or in the liberated areas. Those who stopped exporting oil and feared a decrease in financial revenues due to the decline in the navigational activity of the port of Aden.
Official documents issued by the Sharia and Houthi Ministries of Transport revealed that the two sides sent strongly worded messages to the shipping companies, threatening to impose penalties on any of the companies that do not comply with the directives, which indicates the existence of an intense economic war over the port authorities in the liberated areas and those under the control of the Houthis. .
The London-based Al-Arab newspaper quoted Izzat Mustafa, a political researcher and head of the Fanar Center for Policy Research, as believing that there is a link between the economic escalation and the faltering of international efforts to extend the UN armistice, and indicated that the Houthi group is using new economic pressure tools against the legitimate government, which appears slow and confused in the face of new challenges and threats. The Houthi economy since after the Houthis bombed the oil export ports in Hadramout and Shabwa.
And he believes that Iran's arm excludes taking legitimacy as a similar reaction to hostile economic measures, since the reactions will enter the deteriorating humanitarian situation into a dangerous phase of further deterioration that is difficult to address in the short term.
Izzat Mustafa drew attention to the fact that the entry of ships to the ports of Hodeidah was proceeding normally since the start of the armistice last year and continued after its expiration without extension, but the new development in increasing the number of ships arriving at these ports came as a result of internal Houthi measures taken by the Ministry of Transport, which is controlled by the militias, according to which it addressed the companies Yemenia, the shipping lines agent, warned against the docking of ships they represent in ports under the control of the legitimate government, and vowed to impose penalties on companies that violate this.
This situation prompted, according to Mustafa, shipping companies and importers to change their destination from the port of Aden to Hodeidah, a Houthi measure that increases obstacles to efforts to extend the armistice and warns of humanitarian consequences if the Yemeni government resorts to taking a similar stance towards shipping companies that responded to the Houthi threat.
Regarding the Houthi measures that push importers to replace ports in the liberated areas with ports under Houthi control, Mustafa added, “The group has set up customs points between the governorates to force merchants to pay customs duties again when transporting goods from governorates under the control of the legitimacy to its areas of control, which increases dramatically.” Much of the cost of goods that are unloaded at government ports and part of it is transferred to Houthi-controlled areas. To reduce the extra cost, companies resort to landing them in ports under the control of the Houthis and re-transferring part of them to the liberated areas.”
Regarding the reflection of these decisions, he explained: "The Houthi militia is trying to deprive the legitimate government of customs revenues and port revenues after it greatly affected its revenues from crude oil by bombing its export ports, but the increase in the rate of ships arriving at the three ports of Hodeidah remains far from the procedures for extending the truce, but rather Efforts to calm down are more complicated, especially with the repeated Houthi military escalation in more than one region.
