Houthis stepping up their tone to make more gains on ground

Noura Bendari

The Houthi group is escalating its tone and threatening to take military action, if the member states of the Arab coalition to support legitimacy in Yemen do not agree to its conditions, especially in relation to the payment of the overdue salaries of state employees from oil and gas revenues in liberated areas.

Houthi warnings

On March 22, Houthi Defence Minister, Mohamed Nasser al-Atfi, said his group’s patience is running out.

“If the coalition member states continue to turn a deaf ear [to the demands of his group], they will have to wait for a painful response,” he said.

On March 23, Houthi forces conducted a military exercise in al-Jawf province on the occasion of the eighth anniversary of the Yemeni crisis.

They called this action ‘Operation Resilience’.

Forces spokesman, Yahya Srei, said the operation is not the first and would not be the last.

“The situation will not be the same after this exercise,” he said.

He added that the armed forces are ready to respond to any aggression against Yemen.

Srei noted that his group is one of peace, if others want this peace.

“If you want war, we are present,” he said.

Gaining time

Yemeni political researcher, Motaher al-Rida, said the Houthis are bent on escalating their tone at times of negotiation and dialogue.

The group, he said, wants to put pressure on all parties to make more gains and force those negotiating with it to comply with its demands.

“The coup militia’s escalation on the ground in Marib aims to tighten control over a number of important areas and sites south of the province,” al-Rida told The Reference.

He added that these sites were controlled by the Houthis in their recent battles over the past days.

The show of force in the fields and in front of the cameras, he said, is also for political gains and non-recognition of any political settlement that ends the war and returns the state and stabilizes Yemen.