DUBAI: Yemeni National Army forces clashed with Iran-backed Houthi militia forces north of the Sarawah district west of Marib, Saudi state-news channel Al-Ekhbariya reported.
A Yemeni military source said in a statement carried by the Yemeni defense ministry’s official site “September 26” that violent confrontations erupted in Jabal Marthad north of Marib, where the Yemeni National Army forces inflicted heavy casualties on the militia.
In eastern Sanaa, Arab coalition forces carried out raids on a weapons cache and combat vehicles belonging to the Houthi militia.
According to a field source, coalition aircraft launched air raids on separate militia positions and gatherings in the Nahm district, destroying two SUVs, and an arms depot.
He pointed out that the raids coincided with an artillery attack carried out by the Yemeni army targeting various militia locations and gatherings in the area of Al Bayad and west of Al-Kahl.
In Al-Jouf governorate, the Arab coalition aircraft launched air strikes targeting different locations of the militia.
Yemeni army inflicted heavy losses on the militia west of Marib
Yemeni army inflicted heavy losses on the militia west of Marib
Erdogan warns no place for 'terrorist' groups in Syria
Ankara accuses one leading Kurdish force in Syria, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkiye
ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said there was no place for "terrorist organisations" in Syria under its new Islamist leaders, in a warning regarding Kurdish forces there.
The fall of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad last month raised the prospect of Türkiye intervening in the country against Kurdish forces accused by Ankara of links to armed separatists.
Erdogan's comment came during a meeting in Ankara with the prime minister of Iraq's Kurdish region, Masrour Barzani, the Turkish leader's office said in a statement.
Erdogan told Barzani that Türkiye was working to prevent the ousting of Assad in neighbouring Syria from causing new instability in the region.
There is no place for "terrorist organisations or affiliated elements in the future of the new Syria," Erdogan said.
Ankara accuses one leading Kurdish force in Syria, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Türkiye.
The PKK has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state and is banned as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies.
The Turkish military regularly launches strikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, accusing them of PKK links.
On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said: "The elimination of the PKK/YPG is only a matter of time."
He cited a call by Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose HTS group has long had ties with Türkiye, for the Kurdish-led forces to be integrated into Syria's national army.
The United States has backed the YPG in its fight against the jihadist movement Islamic State (IS), which has been largely crushed in its former Syrian stronghold.
But Fidan warned that Western countries should not use the threat of IS as "a pretext to strengthen the PKK".
Hamas stands by demand for end to Gaza war under hostage deal, as Trump deadline approaches
- Both sides accuse the other of blocking a deal by adhering to conditions that torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year
- Hamas says it will free its remaining hostages only if Israel agrees to end the war
JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Hamas stood by its demand on Tuesday that Israel fully end its assault on Gaza under any deal to release hostages and said US President-elect Donald Trump was rash to say there would be “hell to pay” unless they go free by his Jan. 20 inauguration.
Officials from the Islamist group and Israel have been holding talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in the most intensive effort for months to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.
The outgoing US administration has called for a final push for a deal before Joe Biden leaves office, and many in the region now view Trump’s inauguration as an unofficial deadline.
But with the clock ticking, both sides accuse the other of blocking a deal by adhering to conditions that torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.
Hamas says it will free its remaining hostages only if Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free.
“Hamas is the only obstacle to the release of the hostages,” the director general of Israel’s foreign ministry, Eden Bar Tal, told a briefing with reporters, saying Israel was fully committed to reaching a deal.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who held a news conference in Algiers, said Israel was to blame for undermining all efforts to reach a deal.
While he said he would not give details about the latest round of negotiations, he reiterated the Hamas conditions of “a complete end to the aggression and a full withdrawal from lands the occupation invaded.”
Commenting on Trump’s threat that there would be “hell to pay” unless all hostages were freed before the inauguration, Hamdan said: “I think the US president must make more disciplined and diplomatic statements.”
Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Some Arabic media reports said David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who has been leading negotiations, was expected to join them. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not comment.
In one notable step toward a deal, a Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday the group had cleared a list submitted by Israel of 34 hostages who could be freed in the initial phase of a truce, alongside Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The list included female Israeli soldiers, plus elderly, female and minor-aged civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had so far received no confirmation about whether those on its list were still alive.
STRIKES KILL 10 PALESTINIANS
Nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza, according to health officials in the enclave. The assault was launched after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli territory in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israeli military strikes killed at least 10 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medics said, as the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory urged international donors to immediately provide fuel to maintain medical services.
One of those strikes killed four people in a house in Beach camp in Gaza City, while the remaining six were killed in separate strikes across the enclave, medics said.
The health ministry said hospitals were running out of fuel to operate generators and maintain medical services across Gaza because of Israeli restrictions.
Israel has repeatedly said it facilitated the delivery of fuel and medical supplies to hospitals in the enclave, even in areas where forces have active operations.
On Tuesday, the military said 240 Palestinians its forces had detained in a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza last month had provided “substantial intelligence.”
The military released footage of the interrogation of a purported Hamas militant who detailed how militants “operated from the hospital area” and transferred weapons to and from it.
Hamas and the health ministry deny any armed presence at the hospital.
Global cooperation ‘flatlined’ amid rising conflicts: WEF report
- Multilateral bodies failing to resolve wars, says WEF’s Borge Brende
- Deaths at highest in 30 years, record 122m people displaced in 2024
DUBAI: Geopolitical tensions and rising conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan have caused global cooperation to stall after a period of growth, according to a report from the World Economic Forum.
The second edition of the Global Cooperation Barometer was launched on Tuesday, ahead of the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos from Jan. 20 to 24.
The report, developed in collaboration with McKinsey & Co., found that cooperation was increasing positively over a decade, surpassing pre-COVID-19 levels but stagnated over the past three years due to geopolitical instability.
However, collaboration has continued in various other areas including vaccine distribution, scientific research and renewable energy development, the reported stated.
“The concern with a stalled level of cooperation is that as the world enters the second half of the decade, with critical global deadlines ahead, progress is not where it needs to be,” said Borge Brende, president and CEO of the WEF, during the report’s online launch event.
This rise in global security issues and record levels of humanitarian crises were due to the inability of multilateral institutions to prevent and resolve conflicts in recent years, the report found.
According to UN figures, the number of conflict-related deaths has risen to the highest levels in 30 years, with a record number of 122 million people displaced as of 2024, double the number from a decade ago.
Brende urged the international community to unify and address the mounting geopolitical tensions and competition as leaders approach a highly “complex and uncertain” world.
“The Barometer is being released at a moment of great global instability and at a time when many new governments are developing agendas for the year, and their terms, ahead,” Brende said.
“What the Barometer shows is that cooperation is not only essential to address crucial economic, environmental and technological challenges, it is possible within today’s more turbulent context.”
The Barometer uses 41 indicators to measure global cooperation between 2012 and 2023 across five pillars: trade and capital flows, innovation and technology, climate and natural capital, health and wellness, and peace and security.
Positive momentum in climate finance, trade and innovation offered hope, the report stated.
“Advancing global innovation, health, prosperity and resilience cannot be done alone,” said Bob Sternfels, global managing partner at McKinsey & Co.
“Leaders will need new mechanisms for working together on key priorities, even as they disagree on others, and the past several years have shown this balance is possible.”
He urged world leaders to embrace “disordered” cooperation, as well as develop adaptive and solutions-driven decision-making to navigate a turbulent global landscape.
“By pivoting towards cooperative solutions, leaders can rebuild trust, drive meaningful change and unlock new opportunities for shared progress and resilience in the complex years ahead,” he said.
According to the UN, just 17 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals are on track to meet the 2030 deadline.
The advancement of cooperation in innovation in 2023 drove the adoption of new technologies that benefited multiple areas of life. However, the WEF warned that emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence was reshaping the global landscape, raising the possibility of an “AI arms race.”
“Cooperative leadership and inclusive strategies will be key to harness its vast potential while tackling risks,” according to experts quoted in the report.
The report found that cooperation on climate goals improved over the past year, with increased finance flows and higher trade in low-carbon technologies such as solar, wind and electric vehicles. Yet, urgent action was still required to meet net-zero targets as global emissions continue to rise.
According to UN figures, global temperatures have risen to record levels, with 2024 being the hottest year on record.
Health outcomes, including life expectancy, continued to improve post-pandemic, but overall progress was slowing compared to pre-2020. Brende warned that forging collaboration in a highly fragmented world was crucial to address cross-border challenges.
Seven million people died from COVID-19, while the US has reported the first human death linked to bird flu on Tuesday. Cybercrime cost the world $2 trillion in 2023, he added.
“With pandemics, there is no other way than using the tools we have for early warnings. We have to come together and put all resources to move much faster than we did.
“COVID-19 was the worst pandemic we had seen in 100 years, but I don’t think it will take 100 years before we see the next pandemic,” warned Brende.
The report revealed that although cross-border assistance and pharmaceutical research and development have declined, and cooperation on trade in health goods and international regulations stalled, various health metrics including child and maternal mortality remained strong.
Goods trade declined by 5 percent, driven largely by slower growth in China and other developing economies, while global fragmentation continued to reduce trade between Western and Eastern-aligned blocs. However, Brende said a 3 percent increase in global trade is expected this year.
Despite this, the report found global flows of services, capital and people showed resilience. Foreign direct investment surged, particularly in strategic sectors including semiconductors and green energy, while labor migration and remittances rebounded strongly, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
“There should be enough common interest to collaborate even in a competitive world. So I hope that this Barometer will then be a useful tool for leaders around the world to know where we stand today, as well as the risks and opportunities we face,” he said.
The WEF’s annual meeting will convene global leaders under the theme “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age.” The meeting aims to foster new partnerships and insights in an era of rapidly advancing technology.
Mediator Qatar confirms ‘technical meetings’ on Gaza truce ongoing
DOHA: Talks aimed at cementing a truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas are ongoing, with “technical meetings” taking place between the parties, mediator Qatar’s foreign ministry said Tuesday.
“The technical meetings are still happening between both sides,” ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said, referring to meetings with lower-level officials on the details of an agreement. “There are no principal meetings taking place at the moment.”
Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been engaged in months of talks between Israel and Hamas that have failed to end the devastating conflict in Gaza.
Ansari said there were “a lot of issues that are being discussed” in the ongoing meetings, but declined to go into details “to protect the integrity of the negotiations.”
Hamas said at the end of last week that indirect negotiations in Doha had resumed, while Israel said it had authorized negotiators to continue the talks in the Qatari capital.
A previous round of mediation in December ended with both sides blaming the other for the impasse, with Hamas accusing Israel of setting “new conditions” and Israel accusing Hamas of throwing up “obstacles” to a deal.
In December, the gas-rich Gulf emirate expressed optimism that “momentum” was returning to the talks following Donald Trump’s election victory in the United States.
A month earlier, Doha had said it was putting its mediation on hold, and that it would resume when Hamas and Israel showed “willingness and seriousness.”
Syrian mayor says Israel collected arms from locals in Golan buffer zone
- Some Syrians seized weapons left behind by soldiers and security personnel, Mreiwel said, with the Israeli army dedicating an area for people to hand over those weapons
QUNEITRA: A Syrian mayor told AFP he had meetings with Israeli officers as the military conducted incursions in his village inside a Golan Heights buffer zone, saying they had demanded locals relinquish their weapons.
The Israeli military, contacted by AFP, said it could not comment.
Mohamed Mreiwel, mayor of the village of Jabata Al-Khashab in Quneitra province, said on Monday that he had met three times with Israeli officials who had asked to see him.
Israel, long a foe of Syria, has launched hundreds of strikes on Syrian military sites since the fall of president Bashar Assad on December 8, destroying most of the army’s arsenal, a war monitor has said.
The same day Assad was toppled by Islamist-led forces, Israel also announced that its troops were crossing the armistice line and occupying the UN-patrolled buffer zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the strategic Golan Heights since 1974.
Mreiwel said that in his first meeting with the Israelis, “they asked for weapons to be handed over to them within 48 hours.”
Residents of the village, which is located in the buffer zone, had complied with the request, he said.
Syria’s army collapsed in the face of the rebel offensive, with thousands of soldiers, policemen and other security officials deserting their posts.
Some Syrians seized weapons left behind by soldiers and security personnel, Mreiwel said, with the Israeli army “dedicating an area for people to hand over those weapons.”
During his latest meeting with the Israelis on Sunday, “we told them that we no longer had any weapons and that if we had any, we would hand them over to the Syrian government,” said Mreiwel.
He added that he told the Israeli officials that “we are not allowed to meet with you,” as Syria and Israel are still technically at war and do not have diplomatic ties.
Israeli troops have conducted patrols on the main street of Jabata Al-Khashab, an AFP correspondent said.
Israeli tanks are also stationed in nearby Baath City, named for the now suspended political party that ran Syria for decades until Assad’s ousting.
Israel seized much of the Golan Heights from Syria in war in 1967, later annexing the territory in a move largely unrecognized by the international community.
