Yemeni government has accused Iranian institutions of constantly trying to counterfeit the Yemeni currency causing its devaluation.

A government spokesperson said that this is aimed at “extorting the international community by using the humanitarian card to stop military operations against the Houthi militia.”

The spokesperson, Rabeh al-Bady, said: “The Iranian plan aims to preserve the Houthis and save its project which is nearing its end after the increasing hits and civilian defeats that it is suffering from the Yemeni army with the support of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition.”

Al-Bady added that the militia stole five billion dollars from Yemen’s foreign currency reserves, and controls two trillion Yemeni Riyals in banks according to a released published by the official Yemeni news agency, Saba.

He said that the Houthis are using this large amount of local money to speculate exchange rates and withdraw foreign currencies, which actually deteriorates the value of the Yemeni Riyal.

The Yemeni Riyal has reached its lowest value in history in the past few days, where one US dollar is now equivalent to 500 Yemeni Riyals, after it was only 215 Riyals before the Houthi battles began. This also caused the prices of goods and services to rise significantly.

The spokesman added that the Yemeni government is doing its best to find effective solutions to stop the devaluation of their currency which he described as “unacceptable”. “Some decisions and procedures will be implemented in this regard,” he said without giving any further details.

The US Treasury Department had placed a number of companies and clients belonging to the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on a sanctions list for printing counterfeit money worth millions of dollars in Yemen.

Source: Alarabiya