Houthis control of Jawf to worry Saudis: Journalist
Press TV has conducted an interview with Peter Salisbury, a freelance journalist and analyst in New York, about Yemen’s Ansarullah Houthi fighters seizing control of the al-Khanjar barracks in the northern province of Jawf.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Salisbury: The Houthis have said that they have taken over a strategic military base in al-Jawf which is a province in the north of the country and sits to the east of Sa’ada which is the Houthis home province and heartland. And what they said publicly is that the base was under the control of people they are describing as al-Qaeda militants but this is … the Houthis tend to do when they are fighting against opposition forces to label them as al-Qaeda and the likelihood is that they have fought off one of the last military units and still they'd be loyal at least to the ousted president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and tribesmen from al-Jawf.
Now what is interesting is that last year as the Houthis were taking over Sana’a they were also fighting in al-Jawf but subsequently they managed to come to a deal with local tribesmen, sheikhs and military leaders in the region. And we heard of an increase in fighting in the region that seems they are once again attempting to take it.
Now that would be very worrying for the Saudis who have become very concerned about that border and that the Sa’ada border with Saudi Arabia is fairly poorest but so too is al-Jawf and there are Houthi aligned tribes in al-Jawf who are said to have been eyeing the border with some interest.
So if the Houthis can contain opposition forces within al-Jawf and really place it firmly under their sphere of influence, that is going to be a great concern to Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks and months especially as it seems likely these border clashes continue.
AHK/HSN
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