UAE plans to take over Islah Party-held areas in Taiz

TAIZ, Jan. 15 (YPA) – The Islah Party has engaged on Monday to thwart UAE decisions seeking to overthrow a number of officials loyal to the Party in a number of districts of Taiz province, amid direct intervention from military leader in the Party, Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar.

Political sources familiar with the matter indicated that the UAE has developed a plan to control the Al-Shamaytain district by trapping Islah militants and subjecting them to a fait accompli through its forces and seeking the help of sheikhs in a number of areas of “Sabr Al-Misrakh, Sabr Al-Mawadim and Cairo” to limit the presence of Islah there.

The UAE tried to circumvent and pass its plan to control the districts under Islah by overthrowing a number of military leaders loyal to Islah in Taiz through working to monitor and follow up on the military movements of Islah by establishing a number of surveillance centers equipped with precise cameras in the mountain highlands overlooking the Islah camps in several areas, including Al-Hujariyah heights.

The sources added that the UAE-funded leader, Nabil Shamsan, appointed by the coalition as governor of Taiz, canceled a decision that had ousted a number of security official from the Islah-controlled districts and appointed others loyal to the UAE with the goal of completing the UAE control over the rest of Taiz’s districts and handing them over to the forces of Tariq Afash, the nephew of the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The sources suggested that Shamsan received strong pressure from al-Ahmar, in addition to leaders affiliated with Islah in the Saudi-formed Presidential Command Council,” following armed confrontations between Islah militants and members of the “Afash” forces, in a military point in the Bani Omar area of Al-Shamaytain district, which has been controlled by Islah factions since the assassination of the commander of the 135th Brigade, Adnan Al-Hammadi, early December 2019.

The governor, Shamsan, had issued a decision to appoint security leaders for the districts controlled by Islah in “Al-Muzaffar, Sabr Al-Mawadim, and Haifan” and replace them with leaders loyal to the UAE.