Houthi militia seeks to extend war in Yemen through impossible conditions

Ahmed Adel

The terrorist Houthi militia insists on complicating the scene in Yemen and continuing the suffering of the people, amid negotiations mediated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman between the two parties to the Yemeni crisis.

Impossible condition

According to the Al-Mashhad Al-Yemeni website, the Houthi militia has set an impossible condition, namely the payment of the salaries of its affiliates according to the statements of the current year, while the legitimate Yemeni government is presenting the 2014 statements.

The Houthis previously agreed to pay salaries based on the 2014 statements, but recently raised the ceiling, the website noted, adding that the militia raised the ceiling of their demands due to their knowledge of the Yemeni government’s sincere desire to establish peace and stability in the country.

Houthi intransigence

For its part, the Iranian-backed militia did not issue any official comment on this crisis, while some Houthi sources reported that negotiations with the Yemeni government depend on two main files: resolving the humanitarian file in the crisis areas and paying the salaries of its members.

As a result of this Houthi intransigence, nearly a million employees in areas under the terrorist militia’s control suffer from non-payment of salaries as a result of the war conditions in Yemen, with the state of division continuing in the Central Bank of Yemen.

Saudi optimism

In April 2023, two delegations from Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman held talks with leaders of the Houthi group in Sanaa, which lasted for six days, on ways to extend the ceasefire and bring peace to Yemen. Saudi Arabia expressed optimism about the possibility of resolving the Yemeni crisis and prompting the two parties to the conflict to return to the table of dialogue and negotiations, but the situation appears very murky despite positive indications recently shown by all parties to end the worst armed conflict in the Arabian Peninsula.

Impact of Saudi-Iranian agreement

Osama al-Hatimi, a researcher of Iranian affairs, said that the Houthi militia’s behavior is not surprising, but rather it is the behavior of the Houthis in the face of all the truce attempts that took place over the past eight years, which was confirmed by the unjustified escalation during the past month against civilians in some areas under the control of the legitimate government, which resulted in the deaths of children, in conjunction with the Saudi-Iranian agreement to resume relations, which is supposed to reflect positively on the situation in Yemen, although this has not seriously been noticed yet.

Hatimi stressed in a special statement to the Reference that the above does not mean that the Saudi-Iranian agreement will not have an impact on the Yemeni reality, but it means that Yemen will remain one of the pressure cards in the hands of Iran, which it moves whenever it wants, while claiming at the same time and in agreement with the Houthi leaders, that it is an independent file so as to appear as if it has nothing to do with the Houthis and their approach inside Yemen, which puts Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states subject to the Iranian agenda with the least losses for the Iranian and Houthi side.