Houthi efforts to dominate the list of major importers
English - Monday 14 December 2020 الساعة 06:47 am
Aden, NewsYemen:
Informed sources in Sanaa revealed that the Houthi militia, the Iranian arm in Yemen, has sought to dominate the list of major importers at the expense of others who have worked in this sector for decades.
Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported that the leader of the group, Bassam al-Gharabani, who is appointed in the government of the unrecognized militia and agent of the internal trade sector, held a meeting with other Houthi leaders with representatives of the General Union of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Sana'a to discuss and discuss “expanding the circle of imported traders.”
According to the newspaper, the group seeks from behind the meeting to include about 75 Houthi merchants, whose work in the trade profession only a few months ago, into the lists of major merchants importing various commodities and goods.
It stated that the group’s efforts to hold a meeting with the major merchants of Sana’a and officials of the Chambers of Commerce federations, on the face of it, indicate the expansion of the circle of importers, and in its core it aims to include numbers of its loyalists in the lists of importers.
The Houthi move came a day after another meeting between the Minister of Trade in the Houthi government, Abdul-Wahhab Al-Durra, with the Iranian military ruler in Sanaa, Hassan Erlo, who had assumed the status of Tehran's ambassador in Sanaa.
The official Houthi sources claimed that the Irloo and Al-Durra meeting "discussed aspects of cooperation with Iran in the industrial and commercial fields and developing mechanisms for cooperation and coordination between the two sides in several other areas."
The observers do not rule out - the newspaper says - that the Houthi pressure operations currently practiced against major merchants, importers, and union officials resulted from directives from the Iranian military ruler to militia leaders to quickly complete the establishment of an economy for the group, even at the expense of a people whose children are still suffering from the ravages of poverty, disease and famine.
