Prominent figure the Yemeni Reform Party (Islah), Sheikh Ali Muhammad Ali Al-Haisi, was assassinated in the Al-Mokha district, and he is one of the most prominent social figures in the western districts of Taiz Governorate.
The assassination of Al-Haisi is the latest assassination operation against the cadres of the political party who led the liberation battles from the terrorist Houthi militia and who work to strengthen civil peace in their regions.
Dozens of members of the Islah were assassinated during the eight years of war and the series of assassinations in the provinces liberated from the Houthis extended to take several forms, from assassinations with silenced pistols to planting explosive devices and shootings by passer by gunmen on motorcycles, the most famous of which is in Taiz Governorate.
Militias and groups with sub-national identities agree, with their different ideas and opposition, in hostility to the Yemeni Islah Party, targeting its leaders and affiliates for assassination, arrest, torture and enforced disappearance.
What are the motives for the political assassinations that targeted the leading figures of the Islah Party, and did they affect the party's political and national constants?!
Physical elimination teams
Political assassination is a form of terrorism, and one of the types of terrorist crimes that have no statute of limitations. Usually, the party that establishes elimination teams to carry out the assassinations of its opponents believes that it is the effective solution to pass its goals by removing the leaders of the other parties opposing it. On the other hand, it is a solution to aggravate the situation and push the perceived political action into the abyss of lack of confidence.
Other internal and external parties also resort to carrying out political assassinations to complicate matters and plunge the country into a dark tunnel of turmoil, loss of confidence between the parties, and the exchange of accusations, leading to a state of civil war.
In addition, "political assassinations" are a retaliatory methodology, usually from those armed groups and parties that failed to bring about change in society that would allow them to control it in a state of "chaos"; It fears the return of stability that affects its goals and the personal interests of its leaders, so it spreads fear by targeting social and political figures to prevent the return of national political action, because that ends its ambitions.
During the past years (2014-2022), more than (35) leaders of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform Party were assassinated, including an assistant secretary-general, a department head, and a prominent leader in departments or social work. In addition to the assassination of dozens of active members of the Yemeni Islah Party, they were politicians, community figures (tribal), activists, journalists, and preachers, most of which were in: Taiz, Aden, Al-Dhalea, Dhamar, Ibb, and Al-Hodeidah, in addition to separate terrorist operations in other governorates.
Why the Islah party?
Considering that the Yemeni Islah Party is the most widespread, popular, and organized party in Yemen, the militias and terrorist groups see the assassinations of its leaders as an achievement of the ambition to control the tools of political change through which the objective response is required to the psychological and political climate to enable its imagined goals in the local communities, where it plans to expand by displacing the leaders of its potential competitors.
Supporting the coalition and restoring the state:
Islah supported the Saudi-led Arab coalition's stated mission of restoring the Yemeni state institutions from the Houthi militia. The party's members and field commanders had begun to engage in their communities (as in Marib, Taiz, Al-Jawf, and other governorates) to confront the expansion of the Houthi militia and their ally (at the time).
Islah's support for the coalition's operations against the Houthis provided political legitimacy, prompting other components and parties to support the operations. It also gave the popular resistance created by the community the political cover to confront the Houthis. Therefore, the Houthi militia launched a massive terrorist campaign targeting the party's leaders and affiliates.
The Islah party's refusal to grant sub-national identities and external projects - including the Iranian project - a political and popular cover for control led these parties to move the physical elimination teams to remove the party leaders from their non-national projects.
Attempting to change the decisions of the leaders:
The parties that sent the physical elimination teams to assassinate the leadership of the Islah Party believe that they can push the party to back down from its constants, and that changing the leaders can lead to a change in the visions of the Islah leaders and their retreat. But that didn't happen.
This did not happen in Taiz, for example, when in November 2014 the Assistant Secretary-General of the Yemeni Islah Party in the province, Sadiq Mansour al-Haidari, was assassinated by an explosive device attached to his car. The party declared support for Operation Decisive Storm months after the assassination, and its members and leaders joined the ranks of the resistance from the first shot.
This did not happen when he was assassinated in October 2021, when armed men on a motorcycle assassinated the leader, Zia al-Haq al-Ahdal. Al-Ahdal - in addition to his political activity - is a leader in the Popular Resistance Council in Taiz Governorate, and is responsible for the prisoners' file.
This will not happen after the assassination of Sheikh Al-Haisi. Where the Yemeni Islah party in Mocha stressed after his martyrdom: that the cowardly action that absented struggler Al-Haisi from the stage will only increase the Islah and all the people of the Mocha Directorate with strength and determination to follow his path and emulate his unique personality for more effort and giving, on the path of serving the nation, defending its dignity, defeating its enemies, and breaking all poisonous projects and malicious ambitions.
An attempt to push the Islah party to abandon the partnership and the national project:
After the stage of liberating the provinces from the control of the Houthi militia - in whose battles the leaders of the Yemeni Islah Party leaders and soldiers participated - these leaders, who are notables, tribal sheikhs and preachers, began efforts in their regions to restore civil peace and build national stability, which is a battle no less Importance of the battle to restore the state.
Through its statements, the Islah Party confirms the positions of its field leaders, who are present across the country's geography, that it adheres to the national project and partnership under the unified national identity, and goes above all sub-identities as a way to restore the state and civil peace.