Cairo: Yemen’s Al Houthi rebels have converted a one-time cultural hub into a garment store in a step that the government called “provocative”.
The Iran-aligned rebels have leased the House of Culture in the capital Sana’a to a leading official who has made it into a store retailing women’s clothes, the government said.
“We condemn Iranian terrorist militia’s rent out of House of Culture hall of the General Book Authority in Sana’a to one of its leaders, &turn it to garments store after decades of being a beacon of culture, thought &knowledge,” Yemeni Minister of Information Muammar Al Eryani tweeted.
He accused Al Houthis of disrupting cultural places since their 2014 coup against the internationally recognized government and targeting intellectuals in the country.
The militia has “deliberately spread ignorance in favour of its dark, extremist, extraneous ideas imported from Iran,” Al Eryani added.
The rebels have plunged Yemen into a devastating war after they unseated the internationally recognised government and seized some parts of the impoverished country including Sana’a in late 2014.
In March 2015, Saudi Arabia led a military campaign in Yemen in response to a request from the government there.
