WASHINGTON/JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative at the UN, Abdullah Al-Mouallimi, said the human aspect in the Yemen war is most important for the Arab coalition waging military operations to restore government legitimacy there, contradicting propaganda circulated by the Houthi militias.
Speaking at a symposium at the Arab Gulf Countries Institute in Washington, Al-Mouallimi refuted as “fairy tales” Houthi allegations against the coalition about the war in Yemen.
He rejected the Houthi stance that the war erupted in March 2015, while in reality it started in September 2014.
He also described as false that the Houthis represent a large percentage of the Yemeni population, but instead represent only 2 to 3 percent. 
Al-Mouallimi said that the coalition has not laid a sea siege on the country, barring food supplies from reaching Yemenis as claimed by the militias. He noted that food shortages exist in areas under Houthi control and relief sent to these areas does not find its way to the needy.
Al-Mouallimi also denied Houthi allegations that the coalition is not concerned about the damage done to the Yemeni infrastructure and key facilities. He said Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries have pledged more than $4 billion of continued aid to Yemenis, in addition to allocating $10 billion for Yemen’s reconstruction.
Al-Mouallimi said the Houthis will be defeated and the Yemeni people will restore their destiny under an internationally recognized leadership, a government elected with the help of Saudi Arabia, GCC countries and members in the coalition.
Hamdan Al-Shehri, a political analyst and international relations expert, told Arab News Saturday that the Houthi militias are cooperating with Iran, which is playing a dirty game by utilizing its media to spread Houthi lies to present them to the world as the underdog.
He said: “The international community should not be fooled by the Houthi and Iranian propaganda. The facts on the ground speak for themselves. The Yemeni citizens in the Houthi-controlled areas are suffering and are being oppressed and deprived of their basic needs, while the Houthi militias continue to confiscate the humanitarian aid and distribute it among themselves or sell them to the citizens to cover the expenses.”
A report by Yemen’s National Human Rights Commission issued in March pointed to crimes against unarmed civilians including indiscriminate shelling of residential compounds and popular markets, using artillery and Katyusha rocket launchers.
The report described grave violations of international human rights law and crimes against humanity, saying the perpetrators must be punished.
It cited 11 incidents in which Houthis and forces loyal to deposed President Abdullah Saleh carried out massacres, including the targeting and killing of displaced people from Tawahi, with militias dropping mortars on unarmed civilians fleeing in small boats.
According to the report, human rights teams recorded the killing of nearly 11,000 Yemeni civilians, including 679 women, 1,002 children and 9,160 men, over the past two years by Houthi gunfire and shelling.
The majority of victims were killed in 2015, the report said, confirming that Houthi and Saleh militias had been deliberately targeting civilians.
Previously, Abdul Raqeeb Fatah, the Yemeni minister of local administration and president of the Supreme Committee of Relief, accused the Houthis and Saleh’s militias of willfully starving the Yemeni people by detaining the 34 ships carrying relief, humanitarian and medical aid provided by GCC countries. He said that Houthi militias prevented ships from entering seaports of Hodeidah and Saleef.
In a statement to the Yemeni Press Agency, he said the Yemeni people have been deprived of 496,000 tons of foodstuff, 146,000 tons of oil and 275,000 tons of iron and cement.
“Despite repetitive calls to drop weapons and resort to the negotiations table with the legitimate government, this (Houthi) militia refuses to engage in a political process based on the UN Resolution 2216 and the GCC initiative and the outcomes of the Yemeni national dialogue. The international community and the United Nations have not been up to their duties either by implementing the relevant resolutions or by pressuring the militias to abide by the relevant international legitimacy and the will of the Yemeni people,” said Al-Shehri.
He added that the previous US administration opted to stay out of the Yemen conflict, unlike the Trump administration, which is willing to be more active to end the Iranian intervention in the region and put an end to the Iranian expansionist designs.
Maj. Gen. Yahya Asiri of the Saudi Defense Ministry said that the humanitarian aspect is the most important objective and that the coalition forces take maximum care to protect civilians. They keep updated lists of places, people and things that must not be targeted, he added.
Asiri said the Houthis continuously disrupt relief and humanitarian efforts and attack the Saudi border, but the Armed Forces in most cases deter the attacks through pre-emptive operations.
He said Houthis have launched as many as 49 missiles into Saudi territories and planted dozens of mines along the Kingdom’s southern border, in addition to many sea mines.
He added that the Arab Coalition respects all pertinent UN decisions on the issue, including Resolution 2216, and the truce agreements, while the Houthis constantly fail to live up to binding commitments, and have committed as many as 4,500 violations of the cease-fire agreements.
Saudi UN envoy slams Houthi fabrications against coalition
Saudi UN envoy slams Houthi fabrications against coalition
Israel is trying to destabilize Lebanon and Syria, Arab League chief laments
- Israel’s resumption of targeted assassinations in Lebanon is an unacceptable and condemnable breach of the ceasefire agreement it signed with Lebanon late last year, Aboul Gheit said in a statement
CAIRO: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Saturday accused Israel of trying to destabilize Syria and Lebanon through irresponsible military provocations, in “flagrant disregard for international legal norms.”
In a statement, Aboul Gheit lamented that global inaction has further emboldened the Zionist state.
“(T)he wars waged by Israel on the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, and Syria have entered a new phase of complete recklessness, deliberately violating signed agreements, invading countries, and killing more civilians,” said the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.
He said Israel’s resumption of targeted assassinations in Lebanon is an unacceptable and condemnable breach of the ceasefire agreement it signed with Lebanon late last year.
Aboul Gheit suggested that Israel’s actions were driven by narrow domestic agendas at the expense of civilian lives and regional peace.
“It seems that the Israeli war machine does not want to stop as long as the occupation leaders insist on facing their internal crises by exporting them abroad, and this situation has become clear to everyone,” he said.
As per the Gaza Ministry of Health’s count last week, more than 50,000 people have been killed and over 113,200 wounded in Israeli attacks on Palestinian territories in retaliation against the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas surprise attack on southern Israel.
In Lebanon, war monitors have said at least 3,961 people were killed and at least 16,520, wounded in Israel’s war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement from October 8, 2023, to November 26, 2024.
Syria’s new government accused Israel on April 3 of mounting a deadly destabilization campaign after a wave of strikes on military targets, including an airport, and a ground incursion killed 13 people, in the southern province of Daraa.
Syrian government says studying Amnesty report on massacres
Damascus: Syria’s government said late Friday it was “closely following” the findings of a new Amnesty International report urging an investigation into sectarian massacres last month.
Amnesty called on the Syrian government in a report on Thursday to ensure accountability for the massacres targeting the Alawite minority, saying they may constitute war crimes.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor has said security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly Alawites, during the violence.
Interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, whose Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) led the offensive that toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December, has vowed to prosecute those responsible.
In a statement on Friday, the government said it had been “following closely the Amnesty report” and its “preliminary findings.”
“It is up to the Independent National Commission for Investigation and Fact-Finding to evaluate them, in accordance with the mandate, independence, and broad powers granted to it by presidential decree,” it said.
The Syrian authorities have accused armed Assad supporters of sparking the violence by attacking the new security forces.
The government on Friday complained the report failed to note “the broader context of the events.”
It said the violence began with a “premeditated assault” by the “remnants of the previous regime, targeting army and internal security personnel.”
In the ensuing chaos, “acts of retaliation and serious violations occurred,” it said, vowing that these would be investigated and a report issued within a month.
Red Cross warns of continued threat of landmines in Iraq
- Organization calls for greater effort to reduce contamination that spans 2,100 sq. km.
- More than 80 casualties recorded since 2023
LONDON: The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday that landmines and explosive remnants of war continue to pose a severe threat in Iraq, contaminating an estimated 2,100 sq. km.
In a statement issued to coincide with the International Day for Mine Awareness, the organization said landmines from past conflicts, including the Iran-Iraq War and the 2014–17 battle against Daesh, remained a major hazard.
The contamination had resulted in civilian casualties, forced displacement, restricted farmland access and slowed reconstruction efforts, it said.
Between 2023 and 2024, the ICRC recorded 78 casualties from landmines and remnants of war in Iraq. Earlier this year, three students were killed in an explosion in Abu Al-Khasib, Basra.
The ICRC has appealed for greater efforts to reduce contamination and support mine-affected communities. Clearance operations continue in cooperation with national authorities and humanitarian partners.
The call for action comes at a time when several NATO member states, namely Poland, Finland and the Baltic states, have signaled their intention to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines. They cited the growing military threat from Russia as the reason for reconsidering the ban.
Meanwhile, the US, previously the largest funder of global mine clearance efforts, has cut back support due to a foreign aid review under the Trump administration.
Washington had contributed over $300 million annually, covering 40 percent of total international mine action funding, according to the 2024 Landmine Monitor report, which led to major clearance efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Laos.
A State Department official said last month that the US had restarted some global humanitarian demining programs but provided no details.
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Hamas says Israeli offensive in Gaza ‘highly dangerous’ for hostages
- “We have decided not to transfer these (hostages)... but (this situation) is highly dangerous to their lives,” said Abu Obeida
GAZA CITY: Hamas on Friday said Israel’s offensive in Gaza was creating a “highly dangerous” situation for the hostages held there, warning that half of the living captives were in areas where the army had ordered evacuations.
“Half of the living Israeli (hostages) are located in areas that the Israeli occupation army has requested to be evacuated in recent days,” Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, said in a statement. “We have decided not to transfer these (hostages)... but (this situation) is highly dangerous to their lives.”
Kurdish fighters leave northern city in Syria as part of deal with central government
- The fighters left the predominantly Kurdish northern neighborhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh
- The deal is a boost to an agreement reached last month
ALEPPO, Syria: Scores of US-backed Kurdish fighters left two neighborhoods in the Syrian Arab Republic’s northern city of Aleppo Friday as part of a deal with the central government in Damascus, which is expanding its authority in the country.
The fighters left the predominantly Kurdish northern neighborhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh, which had been under the control of Kurdish fighters in Aleppo over the past decade.
The deal is a boost to an agreement reached last month between Syria’s interim government and the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast. The deal could eventually lead to the merger of the main US-backed force in Syria into the Syrian army.
The withdrawal of fighters from the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces came a day after dozens of prisoners from both sides were freed in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.
Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that government forces were deployed along the road that SDF fighters will use to move between Aleppo and areas east of the Euphrates River, where the Kurdish-led force controls nearly a quarter of Syria.
Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh had been under SDF control since 2015 and remained so even when forces of ousted President Bashar Assad captured Aleppo in late 2016. The two neighborhoods remained under SDF control when forces loyal to current interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa captured the city in November, and days later captured the capital, Damascus, removing Assad from power.
After being marginalized for decades under the rule of the Assad family rule, the deal signed last month promises Syria’s Kurds “constitutional rights,” including using and teaching their language, which were banned for decades.
Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, who were displaced during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, will return to their homes. Thousands of Kurds living in Syria who have been deprived of nationality for decades under Assad will be given the right of citizenship, according to the agreement.
Kurds made up 10 percent of the country’s prewar population of 23 million. Kurdish leaders say they don’t want full autonomy with their own government and parliament. They want decentralization and room to run their day-to day-affairs.
