YEMEN (EXCLUSIVE) – A few weeks ago, the Yemeni army and Ansarullah announced that they had dismantled a cell of 17 people of Somali and Ethiopian origin. These were ex-immigrants expelled from Israel who were in charge of intelligence missions.
These agents had listening devices, laser hard disks that contained data related to Yemeni personalities and commanders as well as military and civilian institutions in the country. Under interrogation, the defendants admitted to having been recruited by Mossad.
In Yemen, Israel plays “a dirty game” that is not unrelated to the mass expulsion of immigrants of African descent. For the war that Saudi Arabia unleashed in 2015 against Yemen and that it persists in pursuing at all costs, will not benefit him alone.
The Israeli site Walla mentions in a recent article the “shared interests of Saudi Arabia, the United States and Israel” in Yemen, which are not unrelated to Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria.
“These are interests related to the strategic importance of the Red Sea and the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, which also explains the hostility of Israel and Saudi Arabia to Ansarullah”. According to Walla, Israel might even be tempted to engage directly in the Yemeni conflict,
What does Israel project in Yemen?
The British Liberty Fighters website looks back at one of the most striking Israeli airstrikes in 2017 in Yemen, which, according to the former pro-Riyad coalition spokesman, Assiri, aimed at “one of Ansarullah’s bases in Taiz in western Yemen”.
At the time, the Saudi general had gone so far as to express the wish to see the war in Yemen serve as a catalyst for Saudi-Israeli normalization, since “secret talks have been going on for a long time about Israeli support for our operations. in Yemen”.
“The Bab el-Mandeb Strait represents a vital passage to Israel in Israel’s eyes, a passage that could become unavoidable in the event of trade tensions with Europe,” says Walla, adding: “But there is also has the Suez Canal. Surrounded by Arab countries, Israel still has its eyes on the maritime passages of the region, because it badly needs it in its commercial links with the rest of the world. That is why Tel Aviv should be an ally, albeit an ally in the shadows, like Riyad, an ally who would allow him to continue his war efforts in Yemen. Yes, Israel stands for the moment above the fray and does not take part directly in the war, but it is possible that Tel Aviv decides to get directly involved in the fight against Ansarallah and in this case, the safest way would be air strikes.”
Further in his analysis, Walla makes a clear appeal to the Israeli Air Force to play “a more active role” in Yemen, where “Saudi aviation does not always act successfully”. And the site does not hesitate to invoke the eternal argument that Israel puts all the sauces to justify its interferences everywhere in the Moslem world: “Yemen is on the way of transit of weapons and ammunition iraniennes towards Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, which explains the need for Israel’s military intervention in this country.”
The chronicler of Yediot Aharonot, Alex Fishman, also evokes Israel’s interest in the war “going on in Yemen”: “This is a golden opportunity for Tel Aviv, insofar as this war could bring him gains. strategic. Fishman is interested in the port of al-Hudaydah, Houthi-majority city which is “by far the most important port of the Red Sea”.
“That Saudi Arabia manages to seize Hudaydah will be a boon for Israel, because it is the port that dominates the sea traffic in the straits of Bab al-Mandeb”. For the Israeli analyst, “the control of the Houthis over the capital Sana’a and their rise to power in other strategic provinces is a bad thing, since the control of Bab al-Mandeb will definitely escape Riyadh and Tel Aviv. Aviv.”
But that’s not all: Israel, whose arms industry is struggling to secure a decent customer base, has other considerations in Yemen. Especially after the military confrontations in recent years that have proved the technical limit of missiles, missile shields or even Israeli fighter jets. The monarchies of the Persian Gulf are almost potential prey for this sagging industry.
The war in Yemen provided the necessary pretext for an increase in the sale of Israeli weapons to the Persian Gulf monarchies. In a recent article, the columnist of the Israeli newspaper Maariv, Yossi Melman, talks about the presence of Israeli arms dealers in the United Arab Emirates and quotes one of them, Mati Kochavi.
He is the source of several arms contracts valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. Israel would have provided the Emirates with protection for its oil and gas sites as well as its maritime borders. Melman recognizes that the UAE’s military cooperation with Israel has “reworked” many retired Israeli soldiers who formerly worked for Mossad.