Houthi Accuse 14 UN and International Organizations of Providing Cover for a US-Israeli Spy Network

Yemen Monitor/Sana’a/Special:

The Houthi group announced in a statement broadcast on television on Monday that it had arrested a “US-Israeli spy network,” just days after arresting dozens of UN and US embassy employees.

Abdul Hakim al-Khaywani, head of the group’s intelligence agency, said that the “network” included former employees of the US embassy in Yemen and used their work in 14 UN and international organizations as cover for their “espionage work” after the US embassy left Yemen.

Al-Khaywani said that the network “carried out espionage and sabotage roles in official and unofficial institutions for decades on behalf of the enemy.”

The 14 organizations include: the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNICEF, FAO, USAID, Save the Children, German GIZ, and English language institutes such as Yale and Oxford.

Al-Masirah TV broadcast video clips of confessions from 10 people it said were from the spy network, adding that it was a small part of the first phase. The group claimed that this cell has been carrying out its roles for decades.

The United Nations has not responded to these allegations. The US State Department has also not yet commented on the Houthi accusations.

In recent days, the group’s security and intelligence agency has carried out a series of raids and arrested dozens of employees of international and local organizations working in the country, most of whom work with the United Nations and the US-funded National Democratic Institute, which works in the field of supporting democracy, and employees of a local group that defends human rights.

The Houthi group has arrested around 20 Yemeni employees who were working at the US embassy in recent years, which suspended its operations in Sana’a in 2014.