Image Source: BBC
Middle East – According to Yemen-based journalist Mohammed Al-Rumim, the war is not between Saudi Arabia and Yemen but between the internationally recognised Yemeni government and the Iran-backed Houthi militia.
Saudi Arabia said it intercepted a Houthi drone south of Mecca earlier this month. The Houthis have denied deliberately targeting the holy city, but have admitted to carrying out other attacks on Saudi territory as the two sides exchanged fire in recent days.
Al-Rumim said the conflict began when the Houthis staged a coup against the government of former president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in 2014, with the help of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
“Many people abroad have a wrong image of this war. They think that the war is between the Houthi group or militia and Saudi Arabia. The real war that has been happening since 2015 is between the legitimate government recognised by the world and the militia,” Al-Rumim said.
Iran’s Reach Into The Red Sea
Al-Rumim said the fighting around the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a major route for international shipping, was tied to Iran’s wider ambitions. He said Tehran wanted control of both Bab el-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz to strengthen its hand in talks with the United States.
He also claimed military experts from Iran were in Yemen leading Houthi battles, and that plans for the fighting were drawn up outside the country.
He said the Houthis were following orders from Tehran, and agreed the escalation was linked to the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran earlier this year.
“Houthi is a military arm of the Iranian regime, as Hezbollah in Lebanon and as those groups in Syria and the group in Bahrain. So Houthi militia here in Yemen, they are just soldiers or a policeman with the Iranian regime. They fulfilled what the Iranian regime asked them to do,” Al-Rumim said.
Houthis Losing Ground, Journalist Claims
Al-Rumim said government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, were advancing on more than 13 fronts, including Taiz and Marib. But the Houthis captured the port city of Mokha and Perim Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait earlier this month, after the National Resistance Forces, set up with UAE backing, withdrew.
Al-Rumim suggested the pullout may have been done to anger Riyadh. Yemen’s government ordered UAE forces out of the country in December last year.
He also accused the Houthis of sending children to the front lines, saying hundreds of Houthi fighters had been killed and most of them were children.
He said videos showed some of those held by government forces were as young as 14 and 15, and that the group had left the bodies of many fighters in the mountains and valleys. He called the use of child soldiers a crime against international law.
“Really, as a journalist here in Yemen, I can see how the militia are in the last days of their control of Yemen. You know that now the Yemeni army is getting stronger and stronger than in 2015, and also the air force of the Yemeni army entered this battle against Houthi militia,” Al-Rumim said.
