Houthis squander resources fighting proxy war

The "national salvation" government formed in Yemen by the Houthis (Ansarallah) has not been fulfilling its duties, experts told Al-Mashareq.

The entity, which rivals the internationally recognised administration of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has not been serving Yemenis, and is instead diverting resources to fighting a proxy war on behalf of Iran, they said.

Residents in provinces controlled by the Houthis that are administered by the salvation government are suffering from a lack of public services such as electricity and drinking water.

They also face deteriorating humanitarian conditions and non-payment of salaries.

A burden to the people

The salvation government is not playing any real role in serving residents in the areas it administers, humanitarian aid worker Fakhriya Ali told Al-Mashareq.

"On the contrary, what the government is doing is burdening citizens with successive doses, raising the prices of oil derivatives and all commodities and profiteering from the needs of citizens," she said.

Commodities have been withdrawn from the markets to orchestrate price increases that burden Yemenis, who already suffer many hardships, she said, including non-payment of salaries for government employees for a year.

"The stoppage of salary payment of government employees has had a direct negative impact on the services provided to ordinary citizens, such as education and health care," she said.

These services are not provided free of charge, she said, and are now more expensive at a time when people have no income to cover their cost.

Infrastructure services such as water and electricity also are lacking, she said.

"The pretext of the military effort is no longer convincing to many, because while basic services and salaries are absent, the people in the [salvation government] who are benefiting from the war are launching their own investment projects and money laundering enterprises," Ali noted.

They have been buying up land and property, using national resources for their personal gain with no regard for the wellbeing of ordinary citizens.

Meanwhile, the war has left tens of thousands dead or wounded, and is continuing to serve Iran’s interests, she said.

'A proxy for Iran'

"The de facto authority in Sanaa is trying to play the role of a government," political researcher Yassin al-Tamimi told Al-Mashareq.

"It is monopolising and controlling resources and redirecting them not to the military effort but to consolidate its political and economic power," he said.

"Despite the desperate attempts to label what is happening as a national war against external aggression, what we are seeing is a proxy war that does not achieve any aim for Yemenis, as much as it boosts Iran’s position in the regional conflict," al-Tamimi said.

"The role of the Houthis in this war is that of a proxy for Iran and its interests," Abaad Centre for Research and Studies director Abdulsalam Mohammed told Al-Mashareq.

Meanwhile, despite the revenues the Houthis rake in, "the population in the areas they control suffer from a total lack of services such as electricity and health care, and the stoppage of salary payment".

The funds they collect from the population are redirected "to serve the interest of their supporters and Iran’s objectives in the region", he added.

"Most infrastructure facilities in Yemen have been destroyed as a consequence of the war and ongoing regional conflict," economist Abdul-Jalil Hassan told Al-Mashareq.

Domestic resources must be directed towards rehabilitating infrastructure and reactivating the services provided to citizens, and towards building and reconstruction instead of committing them to the battlefronts, he said.

"This is what the parties to the conflict must consider to stop the war that has brought nothing to Yemen but ruin and destruction on a daily basis for the past [three] years."