Al-Houthi Comments on US President’s Announcement of the Release of an American Citizen

YemenExtra

SH.A.

Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, Head of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee has commented on US president Donald Trump’s announcement of the release of an American citizen after being detained for eighteen months in Yemen. The details of why he was released or what the US has given in return remain unclear.

“The incident confirms the support of the US administration for terrorism and its concealment of terrorist militias,” Mohamed Ali al-Houthi wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

Al-Houthi revealed, in two tweets on Tuesday, information that explains that the American citizen named Danny Burch was abducted by a terrorist group following the US-Saudi-Emirati invasion, and has remained in the areas under its control since his kidnapping in September 2017, until the announcement of Trump on Monday.

The US failure to disclose the details of the deal was justified by “fear that the American public would not let it pass”, he added

Al-Houthi attached a link to a news report published by Yahoo News on Tuesday, based on a secret report of the Yemeni security apparatus, dated September 23, 2017 and titled “Kidnapping of a foreigner”.

The article stated that four gunmen kidnapped Burch in front of a restaurant on a main street in Sana’a, for which the causes and motives remain unknown.

In an update to the security report, the security service stated that the American had been seized by a prominent gang based in Ma’rib province, and was being held there.

The Yahoo News website explained that a local source in Ma’rib confirmed the information contained in the security report, and said that “he was informed by members of the gang about the kidnapping on the day he was taken.”

One of the details that remain unclear is why it took more than a year to liberate Burch from Ma’rib, which is under the control of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and it is unclear how the UAE has facilitated their release.

The head of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee described the allegations of US president Donald Trump’s fallacy and said: “Trump’s announcement that is a fallacy meant to cover up the failure of his administration and to abandon Burch during this period of his capture.”