Al-Houthi loots salaries.. Yemeni refusal to implement the militia's wishes under the armistice banner
English - Wednesday 03 August 2022 الساعة 10:29 am
Sana'a, NewsYemen, private:
Amid extensive UN and international diplomatic moves to extend the armistice in Yemen for the third time in a row, the terrorist Houthi group has escalated its conditions to accept this despite its repudiation of its commitments under the armistice.
As the group’s leaders demanded during the last period to compel the government in Aden to pay the salaries of employees in the group’s areas of control from oil and gas revenues as one of the conditions for accepting the extension of the truce.
The President of the Presidential Council Rashad Al-Alimi announced the keenness of the Council and the government to pay all salaries of public service employees in various parts of the country, during his call with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, on Sunday, to discuss the extension of the truce.
Al-Alimi linked the implementation of this to the Houthi militias fulfilling their commitments under the Stockholm Agreement, which is binding to supply and allocate all proceeds from Hodeidah ports for this purpose.
However, media reports indicate that there is pressure led by the United Nations, through its envoy, with a number of influential countries, led by America, to compel the legitimate government to transfer oil and gas revenues to pay the salaries of employees in all governorates, including the areas under the control of the Houthi group. Without talking about the revenues that the group collects in these areas, which are estimated at billions of riyals annually.
This international trend, in line with the Houthi desires, sparked widespread objection by Yemeni activists and politicians on social media, who organized a campaign to highlight the systematic looting of revenues by the militias in their areas of control instead of using them to pay the salaries of employees.
Under the hashtag: (# Al-Houthi_loots_salaries), journalist Saleh Al-Baydani wrote that Al-Houthi requires the extension of the international truce that legitimacy pays the salaries of his fighters, in order that "he will devote himself to collecting, looting money, mobilizing and mobilizing for war," as he put it.
In the event that this happens, Al-Baidani believes that Al-Houthi will demand the extension of the truce for the fourth time, by sharing oil and gas revenues with the legitimate government!
While the writer Abdullah Ismail refers to the estimates of international experts that what Al-Houthi collects from official revenues is more than 400 billion riyals annually, stressing that this is enough to pay salaries and an increase, pointing out that Al-Houthi also collects many times this amount from informal methods such as levies, black market revenues and communications.
Journalist Ammar Ali Ahmed reinforces this fact by referring to the 2014 budget figures, in which the total salaries amounted to about 977 billion riyals, pointing out that the salaries of the army and security in the budget are about 435 billion riyals, which means that the salaries of civil servants in all governorates of the Republic are about 542 billion riyals.
He adds: If we say that the largest percentage of civil servants in Houthi areas (60%), it means that it does not exceed 300 billion riyals, or about 25 billion per month only.
Referring to what the government announced that the Houthi militia collected about 105 billion in fees on oil derivatives ships during the 4-month truce, "which is enough salaries for employees in their areas of control," he said.
