Twitter suspends Arabic-language account of Houthi military spokesman

Twitter has suspended the Arabic-language account of the spokesperson for the Houthi-aligned Yemeni armed forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree.

The account was taken down on Saturday. At the time it had over 300,000 followers and had been active since November 2018 and provided users with updates and statements regarding military operations of the armed forces against Saudi Arabia and coalition partner the UAE. The account also shared information on developments on the ground against Saudi-backed mercenary forces fighting on behalf of the exiled Yemeni government.

The Arabic account of Yahya Saree the Yemeni armed forces spokesperson has been suspended by Twitter#Twitter, The United States state-affiliated media, doing everything in its power to silence the oppressed voice of #Yemen pic.twitter.com/j2cM3evqee

— Soureh 2 🇮🇷🇵🇸 (@Soureh_design2) April 10, 2022

Saree’s English-language account is still active and earlier today Saree posted a tweet in Arabic describing the move by the social media platform as being “in line with the policy of the forces of aggression” in order to “silence mouths that expose them and reveal their crimes”.

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He also announced that another Arabic-language account has since been created, which already has over 12,000 followers.

The suspension of the previous account came days after the president of the internationally-recognised Yemeni government Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi announced that he had transferred his powers to a newly established presidential leadership council and had sacked his vice president, Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar. It is hoped that this can help bring about a settlement to the conflict now in its seventh year.

The council, headed by a former adviser to Hadi, includes eight board members, with equal representation from the north and south of the country, however the Houthi movement, which forms an integral part of the de-facto government based in Sanaa, was excluded from the council, which is not recognised as legitimate by the group.

READ: Yemen’s new Presidential Council promises to bring peace