Al-Houthi hinting at the battle of Marib.. a real threat or a pressure card for the settlement negotiations
English - Wednesday 12 July 2023 الساعة 05:45 pm
Marib, NewsYemen, Private:
In the words of its information minister, the legitimate government described the maneuver recently carried out by the terrorist Houthi militia affiliated with Iran in the Serwah district of Ma'rib governorate, as a dangerous escalation that threatens the return of war and blows up peace opportunities.
On Monday, the Houthi militia showed pictures and video clips of what it said was a military maneuver it carried out in Serwah, Ma'rib governorate, in conjunction with its sectarian celebrations of the so-called "Walayat Day", in which infantry units, mechanized vehicles, snipers, artillery, an anti-armor unit, drones and warplanes participated, according to the group's media.
Hours later, the militias targeted, on Tuesday, the al-Mushajh area in the vicinity of the city of Ma'rib, with two ballistic missiles that landed in an empty place near the camps crowded with the displaced, without causing any casualties. The army forces also announced the downing of two drones of the Houthi militia while they were flying over sites in the Al-Mushajah front.
On Monday, the UN Special Envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, during his briefing to the UN Security Council, expressed his concern about the Houthi military moves around the city of Marib, in addition to the recent parade by the Houthi group of hundreds of militiamen in Ibb.
During the past weeks, media reports spoke of the Houthi militia mobilizing its fronts around the city of Marib, strengthening it with fighters and medium and heavy military equipment, and setting up missile launchers on these fronts.
These moves by the Houthi group raise fears that the group has an intention to resume its battle to control the city of Marib and the oil and gas fields in the Safer region, which stopped after the harsh military defeat it received at the hands of the forces of the southern giants in early 2022, by expelling it from the three districts of Beihan, west of Shabwa. In addition to the Harib district, south of Marib.
In mid-2020, the Houthi militia launched an all-out battle to control Marib, after the sudden collapse of the legitimate fronts in Nihm, west of Sana'a, Al-Jawf, and Al-Bayda. The tribes of the province and the rest of the legitimacy forces.
These battles, which were supported by heavy air cover by the coalition aircraft, inflicted heavy losses on the Houthi militia among its members, as one of the militia leaders admitted, in a statement to Agence France-Presse, that 15,000 militiamen were killed in these battles.
The great attrition suffered by the militias, such as, in addition to the military defeat at the hands of the giants' forces, is the main reason behind the Houthi group's submission to calls for calm and its declaration in April of last year, which today raises an important question about the group's seriousness in resuming its battle in Marib and its ability to fight battles of attrition. New, for several reasons and military and political factors.
Militarily, the group realizes that resuming the battle in Marib, starting from its last foothold, which is the Balkan Mountains, puts it in front of difficult choices on the ground, either by advancing towards the city of Marib and waging a difficult battle to storm it, or by heading across the desert towards the Safer oil fields, which are no more than 50 km from Balk Mountains.
However, the Houthi group fears that its detonation of the war in Marib will force the coalition, specifically Saudi Arabia, to return to its intervention in the war through aviation, to prevent the fall of Marib and its oil fields in the hands of the group. This would represent suicide for any attack by the Houthi militia towards Safer across the desert, after its members become easy prey for coalition aircraft.
Also, this scenario means an official end to the armistice and a blow to all current efforts to renew it and reach features of a political settlement that ends the war in Yemen, which means the Houthi group losing all the gains it obtained under the armistice and the gains that it aspires to obtain later through the agreement to renew it.
All of this may precipitate the Houthi group's hinting at the option of war in Marib, more like a pressure card that the group aims to move the current stalemate in peace efforts by trying to impose its conditions on the table to accept the armistice renewal agreement and enter into negotiations for a final settlement of the war in Yemen.
