Al-Houthi: Salaries of employees on the coalition and the United Nations

English - Thursday 19 May 2022 الساعة 03:57 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, special:

The terrorist Houthi group repudiated its responsibility to pay the salaries of employees in its areas of control;  Despite collecting hundreds of billions of revenue, he called on the United Nations and the coalition to spend it.

The group, through the head of its political council, Mahdi Al-Mashat, called on the United Nations and the coalition to "disburse overdue salaries to all state employees and ensure the sustainability of their payment, as this comes within the humanitarian file and within the framework of their duties."

According to what was published by the group's controlled "Saba" agency;  Al-Mashat justified these demands that the coalition "controls the oil and gas wealth and port revenues";  In addition, "the operations of the Central Bank transferred its functions to Aden."

The agency said in a news release that the Political Council headed by Al-Mashat referred in a meeting to it "a request to extend the armistice to study according to the evaluation of the current phase of the armistice, which will end on the second of next June."

According to the news, the Houthi group linked the file of lifting the siege on Taiz and opening its roads to "the extent of the coalition's commitment to the terms of the current armistice."  This indicates the group's intentions to delay this file, despite the launch of flights from Sanaa airport.

The Houthi group’s demand from the coalition and the United Nations comes in response to the government’s repeated demands to the international community and the United Nations to pressure the group to commit to supplying the proceeds of oil shipments arriving at the port of Hodeidah during the two months of the armistice to pay the salaries of employees in its areas of control.

According to the armistice agreement, 18 oil shipments will arrive at the port of Hodeidah during the two months of the armistice, of which 11 shipments arrived, according to a statement by UN envoy Hans Grundberg to reporters on Tuesday.

According to the government, customs and tax revenues from these shipments amount to 90 billion riyals, which is enough to pay three months’ salaries for civil sector employees in Houthi-controlled areas, according to a statement by the Minister of Information Muammar al-Eryani.

In March of the year 2020, the United Nations accused the Houthi group of looting 50 billion riyals from the revenues of the port of Hodeidah, in clear violation of the Sweden agreement, which stipulated that it be deposited in the central bank in Hodeidah, and then used to pay the salaries of civil servants.

The salaries of employees in Houthi areas have been cut off for more than 6 years, while the group is satisfied with paying them half a month’s salary every 4 months, despite the fact that it collects revenues and levies worth hundreds of billions annually, according to international reports, the most important of which are reports issued by the Security Council’s team of experts.

Where the latest report issued by the team at the beginning of this year indicated that the Houthi militia reaped hundreds of billions of revenues annually from various sectors and activities, including levies on oil derivatives, which it said amounted to more than 200 billion last year, in addition to about 407 billion riyals in corporate taxes and fees.  Licensing of telecommunications companies, tobacco and others.

The report of the expert group indicated that the group received other revenues from various sources besides taxes, customs, zakat and derivatives trading on the black market, and among these sources: confiscation of assets and funds of individuals and entities, receiving funding from cross-border sources, counterfeiting, smuggling, drug trafficking, antiques and antiquities.