Monitoring the most prominent stations of Islah and Houthi cooperation, including the overthrow and assassination of the Saleh regime
English - Tuesday 13 September 2022 الساعة 04:32 pm
Taiz, NewsYemen, special:
The late president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, represented the most important stages of cooperation between the Iranian arm and the Islah party, the local branch of the Brotherhood in Yemen.
The party, which celebrates the 32nd anniversary of its proclamation tomorrow, denies the existence of any cooperation with the Houthi militias, but the evidence on the ground confirms otherwise, and the best evidence of this is their cooperation in overthrowing the regime of President Saleh in 2011, as well as participating in the crime of his assassination at the behest of Qatari intelligence in early December 2017, after Saleh's uprising, which was unsuccessful for many reasons, most notably the negative attitude of the government forces.
Beginning in 2011
Everyone agrees that reform cooperation was not new. Rather, it appeared since 2011, when the protests calling for the overthrow of President Saleh’s regime began, when Islah summoned thousands of Houthis to Sanaa to participate in the sit-in camps, and observers estimated the number of Houthis participating in the protests at more than 5,000 Houthis.
Observers believe that the invitation made by Islah to the Houthis was a valuable opportunity to penetrate Sanaa, which has been forbidden to them since the Houthi wars began in 2004.
Islah also invented the term “Saada issue” and portrayed what happened in the six wars as injustice and persecution by the Saleh regime against the people of Saada, while the party refused to give such recognition to the “southern cause.”
Emptying the vicinity of Sanaa from the army
With the succession of events and the failure of Islah to administer the country after taking control of the state’s joints and structuring it for trained government forces and emptying the vicinity of Sana’a from various military units, Al-Houthi began to expand and sign agreements with the tribes of the Sana’a Ring without any move from the Islah authorities, which were preoccupied with the abuse of civilian forces against them and even allied with them as the Joint Meeting Parties.
Simultaneously, the Houthi militia launched a fierce war against the Salafi Dammaj Institute in Saada which has been resisting for months without any government military support, and with the fall of Dammaj, the Houthi militia moved to Amran and fought violent battles against Brigadier General Hamid al-Qushaibi, commander of the 310th Brigade, and his forces, who refused to surrender despite instructions in this regard.
During the confrontations, the reform authorities, which tightened their control over the military institution after it was scattered under the pretext of its structure, refused to provide any ground or air support to Brigadier General Al-Qusaibi, who was fighting in the name of the state, rather, it contributed to bringing him under the name of the Mediation Committee and handing him over to the Houthi militias who executed him.
What raised the eyebrows at the time was the exit of the former president, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who was surrounded by advisers and aides belonging to the Islah party, with a statement in which he said that “Imran has returned to the bosom of the state,” days after the killing of al-Qusaibi.
Handing over the provinces and ignoring the internal uprisings
The Islah authorities also contributed to handing over most of the governorates to the Houthis, after the Ministry of Defense directed the camps, most of which were led by officers belonging to the division, not to clash with the Houthis.
Islah’s support for the Houthis did not stop when the governorates were handed over, but extended to after the outbreak of military confrontations between the local resistance and the Houthi militias in a number of governorates.
Handing over the provinces and ignoring the internal uprisings
The Islah authorities also contributed to handing over most of the governorates to the Houthis after the Defense Ministry directed the camps, most of which were led by officers belonging to the division, not to clash with the Houthis, and conspired against Major General Mahmoud al-Subaihi, who was then the commander of the Fourth Military Region, and rejected the Ministry of Defense directives to hand over to the Houthis.
Islah’s support for the Houthis did not stop when the governorates were handed over, but extended to after the outbreak of military confrontations between the local resistance and the Houthi militias in a number of governorates.
The Islah Party, after its control of the political and military decision of legitimacy, was a certain good for the Houthis in the face of internal uprisings, starting with the Atma tribes in Dhamar, passing through the General People’s Congress, former President Saleh, and the Hajour tribes, and ending with the Radaa events in Al-Bayda.
Perhaps the uprising of the former president was the most fortunate in eliminating the Houthis, as the latter emptied his positions on various fronts after summoning his elements to participate in the siege of Saleh’s house on Hadda Street in Sana’a, and simultaneously the Brotherhood’s army refused to take advantage of this to advance and complete the liberation process.
Military sources revealed at the time that Qatari directives were issued to the Brotherhood’s army in cooperation with the Houthis in the face of Saleh’s uprising by remaining neutral and not attacking militia positions in order to reduce pressure on the forces fighting inside.
Post fit
The period after the assassination of President Saleh recorded a new record of cooperation between the Houthi militias and Islah, which began with the cessation of the fighting fronts permanently and work to impede the liberation of Hodeidah Governorate through the signing of the Sweden Agreement, which stopped the joint forces, which were 2 km away from completing the isolation of Hodeidah port from the city in late 2018.
After that, Islah moved to the stage of handing over the liberated areas in the north of the country to the Houthis without a fight, as happened in Nehm, east of Sanaa, Al-Jawf and Marib, which the militias were unable to invade despite the siege and confrontations that lasted nearly two years.
The party, which is considered an extension of the terrorist Brotherhood organization, contributed to obstructing the implementation of the terms of the Riyadh Agreement signed between the government and the Southern Transitional Council in November 2019 and aimed at unifying and directing the efforts of the anti-Houthi forces towards completing the liberation of Yemen from the arm of Iran, which political analysts considered a free service provided by Islah to the Houthis.
In the middle of last year 2021, the Shabwa authorities, which are under the control of Islah, handed over the three districts of Bayhan: (Al-Ain - Usaylan - Bayhan) to the Houthi militias after they withdrew from their positions, allowing the Houthis to bypass Marib's first line of defense in the districts: (Al-Juba - Al-Abdiyah - Jabal). Murad) and dropped it within a month after two years of steadfastness.
Simultaneously, the Shabwa Brotherhood authorities at that time prevented any tribal or military movements to regain Bayhan and used violence and heavy weapons to suppress it, despite information that there are limited militia elements in those districts.
The military authorities of Shabwa also besieged the Arab coalition forces present and stationed in the Al-Alam camp in the Jardan district and forced them to leave, as part of a scheme aimed at the time to enable the Houthis to take complete control of the oil-rich governorate.
With the formation of the Presidential Leadership Council last April, as part of the efforts of the Arab coalition to unify the ranks of the anti-Houthi forces, the Islah Party had another opinion and worked to obstruct the work of the Council and directed its activists to target its movements in the media.
The pro-Brotherhood military forces in Abyan and Shabwa also recorded the first clear and explicit military rebellion by rejecting the directives and decisions of the Council, and threatening to invade the capital, Aden, which prompted the southern forces to put down these rebellions and purify Abyan and Shabwa of partisan forces.
