How Qatar and Iran hatched Saleh assassination?!

By: M. Ali Ibrahim

Observers believe that Iran and Qatar are involved in the killing of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh by providing Houthis with intelligence information regarding his hideout location.

The head of the British Middle East Center for Studies and Research (BMCSR) tweeted recently that Qatar has cooperated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Sanaa, Yemen, revealing to them Saleh’s location.

At the same time, Sam al-Ghabari, advisor to the Yemeni prime minister, accused Qatar of aiding the murder of Saleh, confirming that he has recordings sent by one of the Saleh’s relatives that prove Qatar’s involvement. The proposition is that Qatar’s decision came as a consequence of Saleh rejecting the mediation between his forces and the Houthis.

He noted that according to recordings, Saleh was killed on his way to Sinhan village, after his agreement with Qatar to head to there. Saleh was killed at the hands of Houthis in coordination with ex-Yemeni Defense Minister Abdul Malik Al-Sayani.

On the other hand, there are factors confirming that Iran is behind Saleh’s

assassination. Yemeni authorities issued a statement in 2012 about the arrest of an “Iranian espionage cell” comprised of Iranians, Syrians and Yemenis who operated in Sanaa and Aden under the cover of businessmen and investors, run by a commander of Iranian revolutionary guards.

Iranian and Syrian spies entered Yemen as investors and received a license to build a factory in Aden. They were arrested while transferring equipment to the factory, and while inspecting the equipment at the Aden port, authorities discovered that the equipment, supposedly brought in for the civil project, were for military purposes.

The spies planned to assemble the equipment to produce missiles and other weapons, with the aim of destabilizing the country and promoting Iranian policies in Yemen, according to Yemeni authorities.

At the same time, in 2016, revolutionary guards could manufacture unmanned aerial vehicles, explained the Iranian state media.

In this regard, the Arab Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen declared in August that it could destroy unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones, in Taaz, Yemen, accusing Iran of sending such planes to Houthis.

Consequently, some observers believe that Iran has depended on such airplanes for surveillance and information collection to provide Houthis with Saleh’s location.

Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed in a shooting on Monday after switching sides in Yemen’s civil war, abandoning his Iran-aligned Houthi allies in favor of the Saudi-led coalition, foes and supporters said.

Sources in the Houthi militia said its fighters stopped Saleh’s armored vehicle with an RPG rocket outside the embattled capital Sanaa, and then shot him dead. Sources in Saleh’s party confirmed he died in an attack on his convoy