Iran helps Shiite-backed Yemeni government to develop strategic port

  14 March 2015    Read: 902
Iran helps Shiite-backed Yemeni government to develop strategic port
Iran will help Yemeni government backed by Shiite Houthi rebels- Ansarullah for developing strategic Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
The Shiite Houthi militants extended their control to Hodeidah last October after capturing Yemen`s capital Sanaa.

Hodeidah is the second largest port in the country after Aden, a southern city on the Gulf of Aden.

Ansarullah has activated the port and signed agreements with Iran on modernizing the port and Strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of maritime transport, the Islamic Republic’s Fars news agency reported March 14.

Earlier in March, a governmental delegation from Yemen headed by Saleh al-Samad, head of Ansarullah movement’s political council, who was accompanied by officials from different Yemeni ministries as well as economic experts, visited Tehran and discussed mutual cooperation with senior Iranian officials.

Iran will provide Yemen with fuel for a year and build a power station, al-Samad said.

In addition to building a 165-megawatt power station, Iran will send experts to look into constructing power stations in the port cities of Hodeida, Aden and Mukha, carrying out maintenance work on the current generating plant in Marib, and expanding the Hodeida port, the Houthi official said.
The Islamic Republic experts will also supply advisory helps to Yemenis in various fields including transport, banking and trade as well as industry, al-Samad added.

Iran has sent two aid cargo shipments to Yemen after the Ansarullah group took control of the government and the capital city of Sanaa.

The first Iranian flight landed in Sanaa on March 1, a day after officials from the Shia-controlled city signed an aviation agreement with Tehran.

The Ansarullah group, whose power base is in the main Shiite northern highlands, overran Sanaa unopposed last September.

Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi managed to escape Sanaa and house arrest at the hands of the rebels on Feb. 21. Hadi has established a base in the southern city of Aden, from where he says he is still the country`s rightful ruler.

Last December, Deputy Commander of Iran ’s IRGC, Hussein Salami said the balance of power in the region is changed in Iran ’s favor.

Salami said that the Yemeni Ansarullah group moves in accordance with the Islamic Revolution (1979) within Iran ’s geopolitical space. In his similar statements, Iran ’s former foreign minister, Ali Akbar Velayati said mid-December that the Islamic Republic’s current influence spreads from Yemen to Lebanon.

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