Balhaf for understandings and consensus governs the council.. Al-Alimi: Bab al-Mandab, the battle of Iran

English - Sunday 25 September 2022 الساعة 06:36 pm
Aden, NewsYemen:

 The Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, said that Iran’s arm has overpowered the interests of Iran over the interests of the Yemeni people, again accusing Iran of exporting everything that is destructive to his country, and supporting the Houthis with weapons through smuggling them, and trying to expand its influence in the region, which requires the intervention of the international community to limit  that.

Regarding the relations between the members of the council that he chairs, Al-Alimi said: "I do not want to present a rosy picture of the situation within the Presidential Council. There are differences and some members drag some into the conflict square, but we resort to joint and consensual solutions."

He denied rumors about the export of gas from Balhaf and the Brotherhood's accusations against the UAE. He said: We contacted Total and France, but they asked for guarantees that the Houthis would not bomb the facility if they resumed exports. He said, "The efforts clashed with French fears that the Houthis would bomb the facility with ballistic missiles."  He stressed, "The export process needs security understandings that allow re-export without concerns."

Al-Alimi indicated, in a virtual panel discussion organized by the Middle East Institute, in New York on Friday evening, to the statements of the Houthi leaders and the leaders of the Lebanese Hezbollah, that their next movements will be in Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea, stressing that there is a relationship between the Houthis and the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, where “the Houthis released the  A number of al-Qaeda convicts, including those accused of bombing the US destroyer "USS Cole", moved to the liberated areas to carry out terrorist operations.

 He explained, that forces from the anti-terror units confronted the terrorist elements in Al-Dhalea, and this resulted in the killing of a number of officers, including the commander of the anti-terrorist movement in the governorate, as well as the killing of eight terrorists, two of whom were released from prisons in Sanaa (by the Houthis).

He said that the Houthi militia has turned Yemenis into hostages, due to its illegal demands, considering this a disaster just as it turned the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea into a hostage to "Safer".

Al-Alimi revealed that the Houthis are presenting new demands and conditions to agree to the extension of the truce, while they have not implemented the previous demands and commitments, in reference to their refusal to open roads in Taiz, which has been besieged for seven years, explaining that "the truce today is under threat."

 And he indicated that the truce was based on three main elements, including the opening of Sanaa airport, the entry of oil derivatives through the port of Hodeidah, and the opening of roads in Taiz.

 He stated that the government has complied with its commitments, and that more than 21,000 have left Sanaa airport, while the Houthis are preventing them from leaving, and that there are more than 50 fuel ships that have entered the port of Hodeidah.

 He added, "Today, there are huge amounts of fuel revenues flowing through the port of Hodeidah, and it may reach 300 billion during the past six months."

 He pointed out that the Houthis had not previously committed to paying salaries under the Stockholm Agreement from the revenues of the Hodeidah port, and their confiscation and looting of 45 billion riyals from the account that the United Nations had allocated for this.

The Chairman of the Leadership Council stated that there is international pressure exerted on his government to maintain the truce, which it takes into account as humanitarian pressure.

The truce is a gain, and it should not be at the expense of concessions that achieve gains for the Houthis and more empowerment," he said. "This does not serve the peace process for Yemen, the region, and international navigation."