Ibn Habtoor attends a parliamentary session to apologize for not attending the Houthi Minister of Education
English - Monday 21 August 2023 الساعة 06:11 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:
After multiple summons by the Sana'a parliament for those appointed to ministerial positions in the illegitimate government formed by the Houthi group, the appointed prime minister, Abdul Aziz bin Habtoor, attended with some ministers and many deputy ministers.
The absence of the Houthi ministers was noticeable in the Houthi parliament session last Saturday, while the most striking was Bin Habtoor's keenness to apologize for the failure to attend the appointed Minister of Education, Yahya al-Houthi, the brother of the leader of the coup group, to the exclusion of other ministers who did not attend the session.
Ibn Habtoor sought an excuse for Yahya al-Houthi, being assigned tasks outside the capital, Sanaa, without mentioning the nature or location of the tasks, and was quoted by the Saba News Agency - the version controlled by the Houthi militia, as saying that "the meetings held under the dome of Parliament are important to discuss the concerns and sufferings of the Yemeni citizen, including questions and observations submitted by members of the House of Representatives,” describing Parliament as “the home and school of democracy.”
This parliamentary summon comes in light of the worsening economic conditions and the rise in the prices of basic materials, and in light of the escalating protests of teachers to demand the payment of their salaries, which are protests that the Houthi militia authorities are constantly suppressing, in contrast to the democracy that Bin Habtoor spoke of.
In the same session, Parliament Speaker Yahya al-Ra'i justified summoning the ministers of the Houthi coup authority and their prime minister to respond to the media coverage by the anti-Houthi militia, which exposed its mismanagement of the areas it controls and the size of the living burden that has exacerbated on citizens. Al-Rahi called on the militia government to show transparency and clarity in public statements about economic resources and government performance, in order to refute what he called "lies and falsehoods" that he said the Arab coalition is promoting on its media channels and websites.
Ibn Habtoor's response in the session was miserable, as he said that the budgets that were presented in the past and approved by the Council were classified and specified by items, as revenues from oil, gas, airports, ports, and foreign aid constitute 85% of the budget, and that these resources are today under the control of the coalition and the legitimate government. And that the revenues earned by the Houthi militia authorities do not exceed 15%. Bin Habtoor did not address the details of the revenues, including the levies, whose collection has doubled in a disastrous way for merchants and businessmen, and even citizens with simple incomes have not been excluded from this.
The news of the Houthi version of the Saba agency indicated that the members of the House of Representatives stressed, in the context of their discussions, the importance of the presence of the concerned ministers to stand before the specific points in their questions and find the necessary exits and solutions for them.
During the session, the members of the House of Representatives, appointed as Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Ahmed Al-Shutari, listened to the response of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on points related to the continuing rise in food and drug prices related to the lives of citizens, despite the decline in the price of the dollar, the abolition of many restrictions imposed on the entry of goods, and the ministry’s failure to play its role in oversight. The agency controls the prices and safety of these materials, including those manufactured locally, and the discrepancy in food and drug prices, and the ministry’s failure to take the necessary measures to unify prices, according to the agency. He also touched on the suspension of the Bajil Cement Factory, the Spinning and Weaving Factory, and the failure of the pharmaceutical factory, and the measures taken by the Ministry in this regard, without talking about the reasons for that stopping and stumbling.
In the course of their discussions, the members of the House of Representatives stressed the need for the Ministry of Industry and Trade to assume its responsible role in continuously monitoring the prices of goods and services, noting that prices still vary from one trader to another and from one market to another.
It is noteworthy that many members of the House of Representatives who remained in the areas controlled by the Houthis have suffered since the beginning of the war from suppressing their inquiries and objections to the performance of the militia authorities under the pretext of "aggression and siege", but the truce period that extended since April 2022 gave them a margin to talk about the gross imbalances in the performance of the militia authorities and the poor performance of the militia. Its management, which the higher authorities of the militia face with repression and threats to members who raise these questions and inquiries.
