Economically stifling the "presidential" ... the Houthi war is outside the bargaining bargains
English - Tuesday 04 April 2023 الساعة 09:36 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:
The Houthi group has stressed preventing the arrival of goods coming from the liberated areas to its areas of control, especially foodstuffs, during the past days, in a measure that the government described as a war crime against humanity.
The description of the government came in a statement by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which indicated that the Houthi group had recently detained 180 trucks loaded with flour for nearly a month in the Al-Rahda area, the southern entrance to Taiz Governorate, accusing the group of using starvation policy as a weapon to confront civilians.
The first chapters of this battle were towards the oil export ports in Shabwa and Hadramout, which were targeted by the Houthi group with a series of drone attacks that led to the cessation of oil exports since late November, which caused the government losses ranging from $800 million to $1 billion, according to a statement by the Prime Minister in early February.
Stopping oil exports constituted a severe blow to the government’s budget, which relies on oil export revenues for 68% of its revenues, according to the figures of the Central Bank of Yemen in Aden for the year 2022 AD, while non-oil revenues constitute the rest of the percentage, or about 31%, and are represented in tax revenues (taxes and customs), It seems that it is currently in the Houthi targeting circle.
The Houthi measures clearly aim to target the ports and land outlets in the liberated areas, which constitute the largest source of non-oil revenues represented by customs from goods imported from abroad, which reflects the size of the threat facing the Presidency Council government and its ability to continue to fulfill its obligations towards citizens in the liberated areas in terms of salaries and services.
This was evident in the news published by the official “Saba” agency about the government meeting, yesterday, Sunday, which witnessed the presentation by the Ministry of Finance of the spending plan for the state’s general budget for the first half of this year, and the speech of Minister Salem bin Brik, that the plan “included a diagnosis of the current financial situation and expectations for the period In light of the expected developments and risks, with a statement of policies and proposals for the remedies to be implemented to overcome difficulties and avoid risks.
The dangers do not stop at the fierce battle waged by the Houthi group against the government's resources in the liberated areas, but rather go beyond what the group is doing in the areas under its control, the latest of which is its approval of the law to prevent usurious transactions, which threatens the bankruptcy of commercial banks, and fears of its repercussions on the fragile economic situation in Yemen in general.
Concerns about the repercussions of this law were referred to in the recent statement of the Ministry of Industry, which spoke of reckless actions by the militia to undermine the banking financial system on which all internal and external commercial transactions are based. He said that this indicates a lack of responsibility and lack of appreciation of the consequences."
The Houthi group's insistence on targeting the economy of the liberated areas and Yemen in general raises a big question mark about the talks of peace and the possibility of reaching a political settlement to end the war that the group sparked with its coup 8 years ago, and whether it was just a matter for the group to stop the battle militarily in which it failed to launch a battle of another type.
