Qatar's money opens the way for wider Iranian influence in Mahra
English - Tuesday 10 August 2021 الساعة 08:40 am
Aden, NewsYemen, private:
The coming period is likely to bring more tensions to Al-Mahra (eastern Yemen), as one of the proposed scenarios for the way the recent attack on the Mercer Street was launched confirms the presence of Houthi cells active in the governorate bordering the Sultanate of Oman.
The news of the arrival of a British special force to Al-Mahra, to hunt down those responsible for carrying out the attack, recalled information previously published by NewsYemen about Houthi cells operating there under the cover of local entities linked to the “Brotherhood”, and backed by the Sultanate of Oman and the State of Qatar.
And on Sunday, media reports said that Britain sent special forces to Yemen, including a specialized war unit capable of tracking phone calls, to hunt down the terrorists responsible for carrying out the bloody attack on Mercer Street, by means of a drone.
A British newspaper reported that the Iran-backed Houthis were believed to have carried out the attack on Tehran's orders, while a senior British military source said: "Everything points to the launch of the drone from Yemen. What is worrying now is that having a long-range drone will give them new ability.
American and Israeli intelligence believe that the plane was launched from eastern Yemen and was directed by the Global Positioning System (GPS) towards the tanker before officials directed it via the camera to the ship's bridge.
Although Mahra is not the hotspot for conflict with the Houthis, extensive military and intelligence activity indicates that regional powers, including Iran and Turkey, are heavily involved in the governorate.
From early on, this axis worked, through Muscat and Doha, to employ the geography of Al-Mahra in order to confuse the Arab coalition, in Yemen, and also to smuggle money and weapons to the Houthi and Brotherhood militia, while it is likely that the matter will develop into using it as a new starting point for threatening international shipping lines in the waters Gulf.
Al-Mahra constitutes an advanced center for Turkish, Qatari and Iranian intelligence activity in Yemen, in terms of arms smuggling operations to the Houthis via Oman, and the recruitment of armed groups for the Muslim Brotherhood in the eyes of local figures led by Ali Salem al-Huraizi.
Al-Huraizi has turned a small square in Al-Ghaydah, the administrative center of Al-Mahra, into a site for open protests, led by the Islamist Islah party with Qatari-Omani support, against the Saudi military presence in the province.
