A Houthi bet on splitting the armistice to strike confidence in the "Yemeni Presidential Council"

English - Tuesday 24 May 2022 الساعة 11:04 am
Aden, NewsYemen:

The terrorist Houthi militia continues to fragment the humanitarian truce, and refuses to implement its obligations under the UN-backed agreement, to alleviate the suffering of Yemenis, while using the truce to practice political blackmail and impose conditions that it was unable to achieve through the war.

In this context, the head of the so-called "Supreme Political Council" of the Houthis, Mahdi Al-Mashat, described the two-month truce as "not encouraging enough", and accepting its extension depends on improving his group's gains.

Al-Mashat said in a speech broadcast on Al-Masirah TV that his group was not against extending the current truce brokered by the United Nations, but he described it as "not encouraging enough."

The Houthi leader claimed that they "are not against extending the truce", which they did not adhere to in the first place, adding: "What is not possible is accepting any truce in which the suffering of our people continues, which makes me call for real and encouraging cooperation that leads to improving the humanitarian and economic benefits in any upcoming truce. 

Al-Mashat's statements, which come with the truce nearing its end, indicate that the Houthis are seeking, by raising the ceiling of their conditions to accept the extension under the cover of guaranteeing "humanitarian and economic benefits", to achieve additional political and economic gains, in light of the international push for calm in Yemen.

Al-Mashat's statements also come days after the militia leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi appeared, via video, urging his group to continue campaigns to mobilize fighters towards the fighting fronts, amid international movements led by the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Hans Grundberg, to extend the fragile truce.

In a televised speech, the leader of the Houthis declared frankly that his group was interested in continuing the war "to prevent foreign interference," as he put it.

The Houthis are betting on the fragmentation and deception of the truce, in order to obtain more free gains, taking advantage of what appears to be an international, American and European desire to extend a truce that they are violating from its first day, and without correcting its course according to the agreed and declared internationally.

Observers are likely to accept the Houthi militia to extend the truce in its current fragile form, but without correcting its course, or forcing the group to implement its commitments under the announced agreement, in order to obtain time to work on more than one path to undermine the cohesion of the forces of the Presidential Command Council, and undermine the confidence of Yemenis in the new authority.