In this report we analyze the video “Yemen tiene demandas y derechos legítimos”. Entrevista a Wahed Abu Ras, ministro yemení | BALAKLAVA (“Yemen has legitimate demands and rights”. Interview with Wahed Abu Ras, Yemeni minister | BALAKLAVA), published on October 8, 2026 on the YouTube channel Canal Red (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVq6s4EINqY). In this interview, journalist Irene Zugasti speaks with Abdul Wahed Abu Ras, head of foreign affairs of the Sanaa government, which is controlled by Ansar Allah (the Houthis) and is not internationally recognized. Abu Ras presents the offensive of September 2026 as a response to the blockade and to the Saudi mobilizations, denies that his movement acts on Iran’s behalf and asks Europe not to become involved in the conflict since, he argues, navigation in the Red Sea is normal and Yemen poses no threat to anyone beyond its borders.
Summary of the analysis
The video contains 40 verifiable factual claims: 17 true, 12 misleading, 3 false, 6 with insufficient evidence and 2 interpretive disputes. Its OMD Veracity Index is 62 out of 100 (weighted base: 61.7), and no penalty had to be applied, since no serious misleading or false claims were found during the analysis.
The interview cites no sources and the host does not contrast the claims of the interviewee, who is a representative of one of the parties to the conflict. The figures on attacks and casualties that he mentions come from the military spokesman and from the Ministry of Health of the Sanaa government, and for that reason they are always attributed in this report to that party. In accordance with point 2 of the method, the host’s claims in the introduction and in the questions are also counted, since the video presents them as the framework of the conversation.
The main veracity problems are concentrated at two points. The first is the account of the origin of the escalation (Blocks I and II), where 9 of the 19 claims are misleading because they omit the actions by Ansar Allah that form part of the same sequence: the unauthorized Iranian flight, the naval blockade against Saudi Arabia and the ground offensive of September 3. The second is the message addressed to Europe, sustained by three false claims: that navigation in the Red Sea is normal (III.3), that Ansar Allah did not move during the wars against Iran (V.4) and that its campaign is not directed against anyone outside Yemen (V.12).
OMD: Datos Vrs Relatos is produced by CEJAPIM — Center for Jewish Studies and Political Analysis of Israel and the Middle East. More episodes of the program at cejapim.org/en/omd-tv; the previous episode fact-checks “Israel Is Running Out of Money,” by Solo Fonseca. This is the English version of the report; the original was written in Spanish and is available at cejapim.org/omdinforme/26002.
