Lebanon threatens to close Al-Masirah and Al-Sahat: Unexpected blow to unlicensed Houthi channels

During the past few days, moves have emerged that the Lebanese authorities would deal a blow to the Iranian-backed Houthis by closing the militia’s channels that broadcast from Lebanese territory without obtaining any legal licenses, specifically the Al-Masirah and Al-Sahat channels, which will certainly be a blow to the militia that is trying to broadcast its poisonous ideas and terrorist acts through those media trumpets.

Lebanese move

The announcement of the Lebanese move came after the Foreign Minister of the legitimate Yemeni government, Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak, sent a letter on February 23 to Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, in which he revealed that the Houthi militia had carried out hostile and inciting acts from inside Lebanese territory by broadcasting the channels Al-Masirah and Al-Sahat without obtaining legal licenses.

Following that message, the Lebanese Ministry of Interior immediately moved to pursue this militia and shut down its satellite channels. Mawlawi demanded that the competent authorities conduct the necessary investigations about the operators of these channels and their broadcast locations in Lebanon and take the necessary administrative, technical and legal measures, given that this violates international laws and endangers the security of Arab countries.

It should be noted that the Houthi militia managed to broadcast its channels on Lebanese soil through the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, which is also backed by Iran and controls some decision-making means in Lebanon in order to implement the mullahs' agenda in Lebanese territory.

Houthi investments

Not only is the Houthi presence in Lebanon through the media, but the militia has investments in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, which suffers from a deterioration in its economic and living conditions. According to Lebanese media, the Houthis have real estate, buildings and land worth more than $600 million in the southern suburbs of Beirut, as well as the militia’s commercial activity in Lebanon with the support of Hezbollah.

Yemeni closure

It is worth noting that the Yemeni authorities had previously suspended the transmission of Al-Masirah on Nilesat in November 2018 after vigorous efforts between the legitimate Yemeni government and the Arab coalition forces led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, announcing at the time that the militia was broadcasting its sectarian poison and inciting violence, hatred and terrorist acts among Yemeni society through these channels.

Serving the Iranian agenda

Regarding the aforementioned, a question arises about the extent of the Lebanese authorities’ ability to close Houthi channels in light of Hezbollah’s control of the decision-making means in Lebanon. To answer this question, Yemeni political analyst Mahmoud al-Taher explained that Lebanon will work to settle the situation of the channels and not close them, because the Lebanese authorities are controlled by Hezbollah, which will not allow the channels to be closed, and they will say later that these channels work according to the law.

Taher pointed out in an exclusive statement to the Reference that if there was an explicit Lebanese move to close such channels hostile to the Arab world, it would have moved immediately and closed them, but the issue is that it talks about the possibility of looking into the legality of the channels’ existence while seeking to find a legal outlet to keep them to attack Arab peoples in service to the Iranian agenda.