The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on two military leaders of the Houthi movement in Yemen, accusing them of procuring weapons from Iran and organizing attacks, in the Biden administration’s first punitive action against the group. The sanctions contrast with the State Department’s decision last month to revoke terrorist …
Read More »UN not satisfied with existing pledges of aid to Yemen facing famine
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a “disappointing” $1.7 billion had been pledged by countries on Monday for humanitarian aid in Yemen – less than half the $3.85 billion the world body was seeking for 2021 to avert a large-scale famine. “For most people, life in Yemen is now unbearable. Childhood …
Read More »Houthis takes hundreds hostage as human shields in Marib offensive
Hundreds of Yemeni families trapped inside their camps in Marib province by Iran-backed Houthis are being used as a human shield against government forces, a Yemen government unit has claimed. In a report seen by Arab News on Saturday, the internationally recognized government’s Executive Unit for IDP Camps said that …
Read More »In wake of Khashoggi report, US sanctions certain Saudi officials and contemplates halting arms sales
The Biden administration announced sanctions and visa bans on Friday targeting Saudi Arabian citizens over the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but stopped short of imposing sanctions on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself. U.S. President Joe Biden’s actions in the first weeks of his administration appear aimed at …
Read More »Iran using Houthis to blackmail UN on nuclear deal, Yemeni minister charges
The Iranian regime is using the Houthi militia as a pressure card against the international community and the US administration to extract concessions on the 2015 nuclear agreement, Yemeni Minister of Information Muammar Al-Eryani said on Thursday. Al-Eryani claimed that Iran is pressuring the Houthis for a military escalation in …
Read More »Israel finally agrees to compensate Yemeni Jews for their stolen babies
Israel said Monday it will compensate families whose children were taken from their parents in the early years after the state was founded, in a major development in the so-called “stolen babies” affair. Activists and family members have for decades charged that up to several thousand babies were taken in …
Read More »MBS in talks with US Secretary of Defense over Houthis challenge
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed bilateral relations in a phone call with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin, state news agency SPA reported. They further discussed enhancing the defense cooperation, and developments in the region. The defense secretary also condemned the recent Houthi attacks against Saudi …
Read More »Pentagon committed to defending Saudi against Houthis
The US condemns attacks against Saudi Arabia and remains committed to helping the Kingdom defend itself, the Pentagon’s press secretary said on Wednesday. Speaking at a press briefing, John Kirby said that Houthi attacks against the Kingdom “violate international law and undermine efforts to grow peace and stability in the …
Read More »In vein effort US tries to persuade Houthis to halt offensive
The United States urged Yemen’s Houthi movement on Tuesday to halt an offensive on the government-held city of Marib and join international efforts to find a political solution to the more than six-year civil war. The advance by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement on the last government-held city in Yemen’s north …
Read More »Yemen fundraising conference slotted for March
A fundraising event for Yemen’s humanitarian crisis is expected to take place in early March, hosted virtually by Sweden and Switzerland, four aid sources told Reuters on Sunday. A U.N.-backed push for international donors last June fell short of its $2.4 billion target, raising only $1.3 billion for what the …
Read More »Blinken formally announces need to unlabel Houthis as terrorists
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said he will revoke terrorist designations of Yemen’s Houthi movement effective Feb. 16, even as he warned that members of the group could be hit with more sanctions. The Trump administration imposed the specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) and foreign terrorist organization …
Read More »Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis threatened by starvation, UN warns
At least 400,000 Yemeni children under 5 could die of starvation this year without urgent intervention amid soaring rates of severe malnutrition driven by war and the coronavirus pandemic, four U.N. agencies said on Friday. The warnings come nearly six years after the outbreak of war that rendered 80% of …
Read More »US in emergency talks with Saudi after Houthi drone attack
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan discussed the recent Houthi attack targeting Abha International Airport in a phone call with US Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken, state news agency SPA reported. Both sides stressed the need to stop these hostile acts and support efforts to reach a political solution to …
Read More »BREAKING NEWS – Houthis lay claim to drone attack on Saudi airport
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group said it carried out a drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport on Wednesday which the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi forces in Yemen said caused a fire in a civilian aircraft. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said four Houthi drones were used in an attack that …
Read More »Biden expects Saudis to improve human rights portfolio
The United States expects Saudi Arabia to improve its human rights record, including releasing women’s rights activists and other political prisoners, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Friday. Pskai’s comments underscored U.S. President Joe Biden’s intention to make human right a key issue in U.S.-Saudi relations, which he pledged …
Read More »US forced to backtrack on Houthi terrorist designation in face of famine
The United States said on Friday it intends to revoke the terrorist designation for Yemen’s Houthi movement in response to the country’s humanitarian crisis, reversing one of the most criticised last-minute decisions of the Trump administration. The reversal, confirmed by a State Department official, comes a day after President Joe …
Read More »Qaeda leader in Yemen apprehended
The leader of Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate has been under arrest for several months, according to a United Nations report released on Thursday. The report to the Security Council from a UN monitoring team said Khalid Batarfi, who took over the leadership of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) a year …
Read More »BREAKING NEWS – Biden says no to Saudi war in Yemen
President Joe Biden on Thursday declared a halt to U.S. support for a Saudi Arabia-led military campaign in Yemen, demanding that the more than six-year war, widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, “has to end.” Biden also named veteran U.S. diplomat Timothy Lenderking as the …
Read More »Houthis block UN attempts to stop major oil spill in Yemen
Yemen’s Houthi group has advised the United Nations to pause preparations to deploy a team to assess a decaying oil tanker threatening to spill 1.1 million barrels of crude oil off the war-torn country’s coast, a U.N. spokesman said on Tuesday. The tanker Safer has been stranded off Yemen’s Red …
Read More »Houthi woman’s cell was planning assassination spree
Authorities in Yemen have foiled a plot to kill military and security officers after uncovering a Houthi cell of eight women. The women were planning to carry out attacks against local targets when they were found by police hiding in several houses in the central Yemeni city of Marib, a …
Read More »Yemen lambasts UN money laundering claims
Yemen’s Prime Minister Maeen Abdul Malik Saeed on Monday criticized a UN report accusing the country’s central bank of corruption. Saeed said that the methodology for the report was wrong and that a Saudi deposit of $2 billion into the central bank in Aden had “greatly alleviated the humanitarian crisis” …
Read More »90 wounded in explosion within Houthi-controlled city
At least two people were killed and more than 90 wounded in an explosion at a gas station on Saturday afternoon in the Houthi-controlled central city of Bayda, a health official told Arab News. A video circulating on social media showed a large ball of fire emanating from the gas …
Read More »Italy refuses to sell missiles to Saudi and UAE, fearing for Yemen
Italy has halted the sale of thousands of missiles to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Friday, citing Rome’s commitment to restoring peace in war-ravaged Yemen and protecting human rights. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are part of an Arab coalition that …
Read More »Secretary of State Blinken Blinken taking second look at Houthis terror designation
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said the State Department was taking a “very urgent and very close look” at the Trump administration designation of Yemen’s Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization and wants to make sure aid groups can deliver assistance to the country. Former U.S. …
Read More »Fears still loom over US sanctions on Yemen
The United Nations is still hearing concerns that companies are planning to cancel or suspend business with Yemen despite a U.S. decision to allow all transactions with the Houthi movement “given this move does not resolve underlying uncertainties,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday. The United States on Monday …
Read More »Security Council charges Yemeni regime, Houthis with money laundering
Independent U.N. sanctions monitors accused Yemen’s government, in a report seen by Reuters on Tuesday, of money-laundering and corruption “that adversely affected access to adequate food supplies” and said the Houthi group collected at least $1.8 billion in state revenue in 2019 to help fund its war effort. The annual …
Read More »US vacillation over Houthis as terrorists in responce to aid outcry
The United States on Monday approved all transactions involving Yemen’s Houthi movement for the next month as Washington reviews a Trump administration designation of the Iran-aligned group as a foreign terrorist organization. The move appeared designed to allay fears of companies and banks involved in commercial trade to Yemen, which …
Read More »YouTube bans Houthis after US designates organisation as terrorist
YouTube permanently deleted seven Houthi accounts on Sunday due to a breach of its policy, less than a week after the US designated the militia as a foreign terrorist organization. It deleted accounts that the group had been using to share its agenda, such as its main channel “Ferqat Ansar …
Read More »Aid groups in Yemen opposed to US listing Houthis as terrorists
Twenty-two aid groups working in Yemen called on Sunday for the new U.S. administration to revoke the designation of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization, saying it puts millions of lives and the peace process at risk. The U.S. State Department has initiated a review of the …
Read More »US sides with Riyadh over latest Houthi air attack
The US on Sunday condemned an attempted air attack on Riyadh at the weekend and said anyone who tried to undermine the Kingdom’s stability would be held to account. The strike on the Saudi capital on Saturday, which was thwarted by air defenses, “appears to have been an attempt to …
Read More »State Department backtracking over Houthis terror label
The U.S. State Department has initiated a review of the terrorist designation of Yemen’s Houthi movement and is working as fast as it can to conclude the process and make a determination, a State Department spokesperson said on Friday. President Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State Antony Blinken said …
Read More »US backtracks on full Yemeni sanctions in response to UN, Red Cross
The United States on Tuesday exempted aid groups, the United Nations, the Red Cross and the export of agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices from its designation of Yemen’s Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization. The carve-outs are not enough to allay U.N. fears that Washington’s move would push …
Read More »Repercussions of Houthi blacklisting felt from Yemen to UN
Yemenis fear a U.S. decision to blacklist the Houthi movement could further isolate them from the global financial system, depriving the war-battered country of vital remittances and hampering the flow of imports. Yemen’s war and the ensuing economic collapse has left 80% of the population reliant on aid. On Thursday, …
Read More »Yemeni investigation finds ballistic missile responsible for airport attack
The Yemeni Interior Ministry said the missile which were used to attack Aden’s airport last month were ballistic, Al-Arabiya TV reported. They were launched from a site 100 kilometer away from the airport, in Houthi-controlled areas, the report added. The Ministry said “Iranian and Lebanese experts” are behind the missiles …
Read More »Tussle at UN as US tries to list Houthis as terrorists
U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock will on Thursday urge Washington to reverse a plan to designate Yemen’s Houthis a foreign terrorist organization, warning the move would push the country into a “famine on a scale that we have not seen for nearly 40 years.” In prepared remarks for a briefing …
Read More »Yemeni government wants global fight against Houthis in Taiz
Yemen’s internationally recognized government has called for pressure to stop the Houthi offensive and siege on several villages in the southern province of Taiz, the official Saba news agency reported. Prime Minister Maeen Abdul Malik Saeed said during a phone call with the Taiz governor, Nabil Shamsan, that Houthi crimes …
Read More »US edging towards labelling Houthis a terrorist group
The United States plans to designate Yemen’s Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said late on Sunday, a move that diplomats and aid groups worry could threaten peace talks and complicate efforts to combat the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. The decision to blacklist the …
Read More »Saudi pledges to repair Aden airport after Houthi missile attack
A Saudi-backed team of engineering experts has been drafted in to assess and repair the damage to Aden’s airport following Wednesday’s deadly missile attack. The specialists’ work is being carried out as part of the Saudi Program for the Development and Reconstruction of Yemen (SDRPY). Yemen blames Iranian military experts …
Read More »Iran says Aden airport attack natural result of foreign occupation
The deadly terrorist attack on the airport of the southern Yemeni city of Aden is a result of the foreign occupation of the country, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said. “Continued foreign aggression and occupation of Yemeni soil are the key contributors to instability as well as a lack …
Read More »Saudi coalition blames Houthis for airport attack, pounds Sanaa in response
Saudi-led coalition warplanes struck targets in Yemen’s Houthi-held capital Sanaa on Thursday in retaliation for attacks in the southern port city of Aden the previous day that took place as officials in a government backed by Riyadh arrived there. The coalition accused the Houthi movement, which it has been fighting …
Read More »State Department okays $290m arms sale to Saudi
The US state department has approved the sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia as part of a flurry of arms deals with Middle Eastern dictatorships in the last weeks of the Trump administration. Critics of the sales say they are being rushed through despite broad congressional and public …
Read More »Aden airport rocked by explosions on eve of government arrival
A large explosion struck the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Wednesday, shortly after a plane carrying the newly formed Cabinet landed there, security officials said. At least 25 people were killed and 110 wounded in the blast. Yemen’s internationally recognized government said Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired …
Read More »Yemeni feminists bemoun unprecedented absence of women in new government
The war-torn country announced a power-sharing government this weekend, but it excludes women for the first time in 20 years. Yemeni women’s activists denounced the new power-sharing government in Yemen over its omittance of women for the first time in two decades. In December, a feminist movement launched a campaign …
Read More »Israelis warn Saudi of pending Iran attack, through Iraq, Yemen
Israel is monitoring Iran’s movement in the region and expects that the Iranian threat will likely come from Iraq and Yemen, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman told the Saudi news website Elaph. In an interview given to Elaph and published on Friday, Zilberman addressed Iran and the tactics deployed by …
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