Cutting off imports from the liberated ports... Houthis' desperate attempt against facts and figures
English - Saturday 18 February 2023 الساعة 02:28 pm
Aden, Newsyemen, Ammar Ali Ahmed:
In a dialogue session within the work of the World Summit of Governments held in Dubai, UAE, Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik revealed, on Tuesday, that the Yemeni economy had incurred losses of about one billion dollars as a result of the Houthi militia - Iran's arm in Yemen - targeting oil ports in the south and east of the country.
Losses incurred by the economy after the Houthi militia attacks succeeded in stopping the export of oil from its export ports in the liberated governorates since last October, and it seems that the militias are proceeding with a general plan to target the rest of the ports outside their control.
This is evident through its attempts to force importers and traders to transfer the import process from the liberated ports to the ports under its control in Hodeidah, despite its failure to achieve this over the past years, by imposing additional customs on goods coming from the liberated areas to the areas under its control and intentionally not opening any One of the main roads linking them to facilitate the process of transporting goods.
Additional financial obstacles and burdens imposed by the Houthi group failed to force merchants to divert the import process towards the ports of Hodeidah. Rather, it failed miserably in 2021 when it announced a 49% reduction in fees through the port of Hodeidah following the legitimate government's decision to raise the customs dollar from 250 riyals to 500. Real, i.e. 100%.
This was repeated recently with the announcement of the legitimate government to raise the customs dollar from 500 riyals to 750 riyals, but the import process continued through the liberated ports, led by the port of Aden, which prompted it to throw its last card by preventing the entry of goods into the areas under its control except after the merchants submitted a commitment Written by transferring imports from the ports under the control of the legitimate government to the port of Hodeidah.
In conjunction with this, the Houthi group leaked a huge number of rumors, starting with a tweet by the leader of the group, Hussein Al-Ezzi, on Sunday 2/12/2032, in which he claimed to start allowing direct transit of all commercial ships to the ports of Hodeidah without detention or delay, followed by news of the submission of A number of companies and merchants requested requests from shipping companies to divert the import of their goods through the port of Hodeidah instead of the port of Aden.
However, informed sources revealed the complicity of a number of shipping companies with the Houthi group by inciting companies and merchants to submit these requests, which some responded to in light of the group's threats to prevent the entry of their goods imported through the liberated ports to their areas of control.
The sources indicate that the Houthi group aims to collect these requests and submit them to the United Nations as a pressure card to cancel all restrictions on the port of Hodeidah and target the port of Aden and hit it in the media, as part of its plan to target and disrupt the liberated ports, as happened with the oil ports.
The failure of the Houthi group to divert import operations towards the ports under its control, despite all the facilities on the one hand and the obstacles on the other hand, is due to a number of reasons. Foremost among them is the volume of levies it imposes on merchants in its areas of control, which importers see as incomparable with any increase in the price of the customs dollar in the liberated ports.
Also, one of the most important reasons for the failure of the Houthi group to pull the rug out from under the liberated ports is represented in the large difference in commercial activity between the areas of its control and the liberated areas, which is the most important factor determining the activity of the ports, given that most of the commercial goods arriving at the liberated ports are what are called Luxuries such as electronics, clothes, etc.
Where the group's control areas suffer from a significant decline in the purchasing power of citizens due to the interruption of employee salaries, weak wages in the labor market, and the volume of levies imposed by the group, which completely paralyzed the economic movement in the areas under its control, which is confirmed by local and international reports.
In a report issued in the middle of last year, the Center for Studies and Economic Media said: The percentage of the deficit in covering the monthly needs of one family in the Houthi-controlled areas reached 85%, compared to 2% in the liberated areas.
A big difference that reflects the situation of the citizens in the Houthi-controlled areas and the extreme difficulty they face in providing their food, unlike the case in the liberated areas, which have a better economic situation that makes it a commercial market for buying and selling goods at a higher rate than the militia-controlled areas, which makes the option of importing these goods through Militia ports are useless in the eyes of companies and merchants.
