Al-Qahoum denies Al-Mashat.. The escalation of demands for the payment of salaries confuses Iran's arm
English - Saturday 05 August 2023 الساعة 04:44 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:
The leader of the Houthi group, Ali Al-Qahoum, confirmed that negotiations between his group and Saudi Arabia are continuing with Omani mediation, days after the head of the group's political council, Mahdi Al-Mashat, announced that they had stopped.
Al-Mashat's announcement came during a speech he had to a number of teachers during his inauguration of the new academic year in the group's control areas late last month, where he said that the negotiations stopped after Saudi Arabia offered to pay the salaries by it, and that his group refused that and insisted on disbursing them from oil and gas revenues.
Al-Mashat’s speech and his admission that his group obstructed the disbursement of salaries in areas of its control that have been suspended for 6 years, such as the spark that prompted teachers to announce the strike and refuse to work, which caused the disruption of the start of the school year in most public schools, according to a statement by the Teachers’ Club, which said that the strike over the past days has reached It is 90% in cities and 100% in rural areas.
This step prompted the Houthi group, through the Minister of Education in its government and the brother of the group's leader, Yahya Badr al-Din al-Houthi, to announce the start of disbursing an incentive for three months for male and female teachers and volunteers. However, this step did not succeed in breaking the strike, but rather encouraged the launch of a wide campaign on social media to demand the group Paying salaries to all employees.
The campaign, which was launched under the title "My dignity is in my salary," calledfvnhtgtrtdvc on the Houthi group to pay the salaries of employees in the areas it controls from the revenues it collects in the hundreds of billions. The campaign topped the list of topics discussed by Yemenis on the "Twitter" platform due to the great interaction it received, despite the repression and intimidation practiced by the Houthi group against the population in its areas of control.
The interaction of this campaign demanding the payment of salaries raised fears among the Houthi group that it would be the beginning of a popular movement on the ground, and prompted it to try to prevent this by denying Al-Mashat’s previous statements about the cessation of negotiations with Saudi Arabia, and announcing their continuation by the leader of the group, Ali Al-Qahoum, in statements he made to one of Iranian channels.
While Al-Qahoum indicated that "the Omani mediator is making great efforts to progress, resolve the contract and stumble in humanitarian files," he said that "optimism still exists, and there are good approaches in some humanitarian files," trying to mitigate Al-Mashat's confessions of obstructing the disbursement of salaries, claiming that his group "It has great interest in the issue of salaries" and that it seeks in the negotiations to "find sustainable solutions in disbursing it in a sustainable manner with a guarantee mechanism."
In a clear attempt to stop the escalation of popular demands from his group for the payment of salaries, Al-Qahoum indicated that "the course of events and negotiations are positive, and, God willing, there are solutions and mechanisms that guarantee and are sustainable in resolving salaries."
