The Iran-backed Houthi militias have committed “heinous crimes” against the Yemeni people, according to the militant group’s former propaganda chief who defected on Friday.
Abdelsalem Jaber, a self-styled information minister for the Houthis, explained during a press conference in Riyadh on Sunday that it is the right time for allied forces to complete the “liberation” of Yemen from the Houthis before detailing a long list of abuses carried out by Iran’s militia, including turning state institutions into competing “centres of power”.
Jaber, the most senior member of the Houthi militia to switch allegiance to the internationally recognised Yemeni government since the war began in 2014, said that “detainees in Houthi prisons are being treated inhumanely” among other horrendous abuses.
Jaber said that the Yemeni people reject “the foreign domination of the country”, i.e. Iran’s control over the Houthis, and that the “Yemeni people have rejected Houthi injustices and are waiting for an opportunity to get rid of them”, meaning that the US-backed Saudi-led Arab alliance will soon be able to bring democracy back to Yemen.
Moammer al-Iryani, the information minister of the Yemeni government confirmed on Saturday that Jaber and his family fled the capital Sanaa for Saudi Arabia.
His defection comes amid ongoing clashes between the Yemeni government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis backed by Iran over the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeidah. Reportedly, fighting has flared up in Hodeidah’s east with one government official stating that “the battles here are turning into street fighting”.
On Saturday, government forces regained control of the May 22 Hospital during the offensive. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International accused the Houthis of “deliberate militarization” of the hospital after they deployed snipers on its roof.
Terrorist Designation?
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is contemplating designating the Iran-backed Houthis as a terrorist organization, which would increase pressure of the group to conform to acceptable behavioural standards. This is part of a wider effort by the White House to crack down on Iranian activities that are destabilising the region.
Del Wilder, a counterterrorism specialist, said: “Everyone knows they are terrorists and that they’re controlled by Iran, which itself is a ‘terrorist organization’, but until there is regime change in Iran the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, and others will continue to go about the business of committing acts of terror and disruption.”
And let’s make no mistake, the Houthis are tied to Iran, as even spokesman Mohamed Abdel Salam, has acknowledged.
Source » ncr-iran