Parallel Entities: A Houthi Weapon that Destroys the State, Dismantles Society

Mohammad Ali al-Houthi during an event for the Houthis’ Endowment Authority (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Mohammad Ali al-Houthi during an event for the Houthis’ Endowment Authority (Asharq Al-Awsat)
TT
20

Parallel Entities: A Houthi Weapon that Destroys the State, Dismantles Society

Mohammad Ali al-Houthi during an event for the Houthis’ Endowment Authority (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Mohammad Ali al-Houthi during an event for the Houthis’ Endowment Authority (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Houthi group continues to create parallel entities and bodies to replace state institutions despite its complete control over Sanaa.

Last week, the head of the Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, established the General Corporation for Electric Industries and Renewable Energy and appointed Abdul-Ghani Mohammad Hussein al-Madani as its head.

Madani manages about 200 commercial power plants in Sanaa and Hodeidah, and the revenues are allocated to the militia accounts.

A source in the Ministry of Electricity in Sanaa told Asharq Al-Awsat that the appointment is part of a strategic plan to transform the Public Electricity Company into a commercial investment sector that generates money for the militias.

The Company resumed operations after three years of interruption since the outbreak of the war. It stopped working in 2015, and citizens replaced it with expensive solar energy equipment.

Most solar energy businesses are loyal to the militias, which benefited from the suspension of power stations.

According to the source, when solar energy sales declined in the market after three years, the militias began operating the electricity stations in their control areas.

They sold energy to citizens at twenty-fold its prices before the outbreak of the war.

Militant economy

It is unclear how many entities the Houthis established, a source told Saba News Agency.

Economic researcher Wafiq Saleh told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Houthis implemented an organized plan to acquire various revenue-generating institutions and vital sectors to create a parallel economy at the expense of the private sector.

Saleh explained that the group also established new revenue bodies to double returns and ensure the flow of resources needed to finance the war.

He explained that Houthis have other goals such as eliminating state institutions, establishing a “parasitic” economy, limited to the ruling group belonging to a dynasty that controls Sanaa and the neighboring provinces to achieve sectarian, doctrinal, and divisive goals to undermine the Yemeni state and its legal and administrative systems.

He explains that the establishment of the General Authority for Endowments came to enable its supervision of the endowment real estate and investments and separate it from the control of the Ministry of Endowments and Guidance.

Saleh named some of Houthis’ alternate authorities, such as the General Authority for Zakat, to collect the mandatory charitable contributions, and the parallel Judicial system to control courts, judges, and notaries seeking to govern the real estate sector, which generates substantial annual revenues.

The so-called “Right”

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Researcher Fouad al-Maqtari believes that the creation of some of these entities is part of the conflict between the Houthi factions, citing the Endowment Authority that was created after the dispute between the group of Ahmed Hamid and Mohammad Ali al-Houthi over the revenues and activities of the Ministry of Awqaf.

The body also seeks to recover lands and real estate that allegedly belonged to the ruling families before the September 1962 revolution.

Maqtari warns there is a strategy to limit these properties and ensure their control with the newly created authority.

He stresses that by establishing parallel entities, Houthis seek to privatize state institutions for their benefit, employing a staff of their followers.

He warns that establishing these entities is “catastrophic” if Houthis maintain their control as it leads to having a state within the state.

The expert warned that the group would employ its supporters to ensure complete control and then let go of state employees later.

The so-called revolutionary committees were the basis for establishing these parallel entities.

After the Houthis took control of Sanaa in late 2014, the committees began to supervise various government departments and civil, security, and military state institutions under the pretext of fighting corruption.

The Houthis later appointed supervisors to manage these institutions, granting them illegal powers. As a result, they changed the administrative structure of the institutions, amended their tasks, and allocated their activities and resources to serve the militias and boost their influence.

The Houthis entities established: The General Organization for Electrical Industries and Renewable Energy and the National Authority for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Response.

They also founded the Supreme Economic Council, an economic entity for collection, and other security units such as the National Center for Capacity Building and Decision-Making Support, the National Center for Arbitration and Settlement of Disputes, the Grievance Board, the General Authority for Tribal Affairs, the Security and Intelligence Services, and the Preventative Security.



Iranians Struggle with GPS Disruption After Israel War

Iranians shop in the Grand Bazaar in Tehran on August 13, 2025. (AFP)
Iranians shop in the Grand Bazaar in Tehran on August 13, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

Iranians Struggle with GPS Disruption After Israel War

Iranians shop in the Grand Bazaar in Tehran on August 13, 2025. (AFP)
Iranians shop in the Grand Bazaar in Tehran on August 13, 2025. (AFP)

The streets of Tehran have become a confusing maze for driver Farshad Fooladi amid widespread GPS disruption, still ongoing nearly two months after the end of Iran and Israel's unprecedented 12-day war.

"For weeks I have been unable to work," said Fooladi, who uses Iran's homegrown ride-hailing app Snapp to find customers. "Most of the time was wasted wandering around aimlessly," the 35-year-old Iranian driver added.

Unprecedented disruption has plagued users of GPS, which stands for Global Positioning System, in Iran since Israel's surprise attack in mid-June which triggered a deadly 12-day war.

Iran's communications ministry has said the disruptions were necessary for "security and military purposes", without giving further explanation.

Missiles, drones and rockets often use GPS or other similar technologies, which involve triangulating signals from multiple satellites, to find their targets.

Iran has long employed GPS jamming and spoofing around sensitive military sites but the recent disruptions have been the most sustained and widespread.

It remains unclear how long the measures will last or how much damage they have caused to Iranian businesses.

Ride-hailing apps, delivery platforms, and even basic mapping services like Google Maps and its Iranian equivalent Neshan have buckled under the interference.

In many areas, especially around Tehran, users often spot themselves on the maps hundreds of kilometers away from their actual locations.

"To get around, you either need a sharp memory for routes or already know the city well," Fooladi said.

But the driver, originally from the western Lorestan province and less familiar with the capital's winding backstreets, frequently finds himself running into dead ends.

"I only pick up passengers who know the directions, " he said, adding the strategy had severely cut his income.

In early August, the chief executive of the Neshan mapping app, Javad Amel, said in a video interview that daily disruptions through GPS spoofing had been ongoing for years, especially in Tehran.

But he explained in recent weeks that Neshan's daily active users "had dropped by 15 percent, while navigation activity on the app fell by 20 percent".

The continued disruption has heightened fears of a deepening economic crisis among Iranians.

The country's economy is already struggling under the weight of decades of international sanctions and mismanagement, compounded by the revival of US President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign earlier this year.

Nuclear talks with Washington, which began in April, have also stalled since the United States joined its ally Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites in June.

"This war has upended our lives and frozen our future plans," said Fooladi.

In a report last week, the Khabar Online news agency warned against the disruption of GPS, saying it caused "collateral damage" to the digital economy and public safety, including delays to emergency services.

Former communications minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi argued the disruption was costly and would likely have limited defensive results.

"Drone manufacturers and operators are not stupid either. If the GPS is disrupted and another positioning system replaces it, they will also use the new system," Jahromi said according to his Telegram channel.

With the significant impact on civilian lives, deputy communications minister Ehsan Chitsaz suggested that Iran could consider alternatives to GPS.

"Disruptions are created by domestic systems on GPS, and this has pushed us toward alternative options such as BeiDou," he told Iranian daily Ham Mihan in July.

The Chinese satellite system BeiDou, fully operational since 2020, is emerging as a global rival to the US-built and operated GPS.

Chitsaz said Iran was "drafting a program" so some of the country's location-based services for transport, agriculture could "gradually migrate from GPS to BeiDou".

He acknowledged disruptions in Iran, coupled with years-long internet restrictions, have damaged businesses and created "social distrust and despair".

But experts say that replacing GPS would be complex.

"Doing so would require extensive and costly infrastructure changes," said Amir Rashidi of the US-based Miaan group, adding that Iran is currently "highly vulnerable in cyberspace".

Many in Iran believe that another confrontation with Israel is on the horizon as Israel and the United States continue to threaten attacks if Iran restarts its nuclear program, which has been on hold since the war.

"Everything is uncertain, and we can't plan. The future is unclear," said Mohammad Hossein Ghanbari, a 32-year-old Snapp driver.

"We don't know whether the war will break out again or what will happen next."