We are in an economic war against the Houthis, says Aidrous Al-Zubaidi

The President of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and member of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), Aidrous Al-Zubaidi, said today that the country is fighting an economic battle against the Houthis, paralleling those being fought on the military fronts.

His statement came during the inauguration of the second meeting of the PLC-supporting body, the Consultation and Reconciliation Commission, in the capital city of Aden, according to information published on the STC's official website.

Al-Zubaidi said that the course of economic reforms, at the forefront of which are the decisions of the Central Bank in Aden to regulate the banking sector, will not stop. 

"We affirm our support for all the decisions of the Central Bank that protect the banking sector from the Houthi militia, which is classified as a terrorist group, and we stress the need to implement them quickly," he said.

“We also support the decisions of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Communications regarding transferring state institutions and the headquarters of mobile phone companies from Sanaa to the capital, Aden, to end the Houthi dominance,” he added.

He strongly criticized the Houthis’ naval attacks against commercial ships, saying they endanger the economic and food security of the Yemeni people. He expressed his support for international efforts against the Houthis.

Speaking about the economic front, the senior Southern official described it as “parallel to the military fronts”, with both linked to each other by a “fateful, indivisible connection”, stressing the importance of continuing to fight on both. 

The Consultation and Reconciliation Commission is a political body, whose establishment was officially declared in April 2022 in conjunction with the PLC's formation. It consists of approximately 50 members belonging to the main parties within the internationally recognized legitimacy camp.

The body is led by Mohammed Al-Ghaithi, former head of the STC's Foreign Affairs Department.