Frankly Speaking: What will it take for Houthis to assist in demining Yemen?

01 | Saudi-Iran deal had no impact on Houthi action
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Updated 17 July 2023
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Frankly Speaking: What will it take for Houthis to assist in demining Yemen?

  • Saudi-Iran deal has ‘had no impact’ on Houthi behavior ‘at least when it comes to landmines,’ Masam MD says
  • Program has cleared over 400,000 items, including anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, of which 7,800 were improvised devices
  • Al-Gosaibi says UN funding of opaque Sanaa-led demining work is ‘a waste of time and money’

RIYADH: The normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran has so far failed to improve the behavior of the Houthi militia in relation to its use of landmines in Yemen, Ousama Al-Gosaibi, managing director of Masam, the Saudi Project for Landmine Clearance, has said.

He says he is optimistic about the Saudi-Iran deal, but as of yet there has been little impact of the agreement on landmine clearance in Yemen.

“I appreciate that Iran and Saudi Arabia have reached that accord. I think in the long run it should help the whole area and should reshape some of the relationships that exist in this area,” Al-Gosaibi told Katie Jensen in the latest episode of the Arab News “Frankly Speaking” show.

“How is that impacting mine action in Yemen? I don’t think we have seen any improvement on the issue of landmines in Yemen yet.”

Eight years have passed since the Iran-backed Houthis overthrew the internationally recognized government in Yemen, causing a war that has killed hundreds of thousands and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The country is littered with landmines as a result of the conflict.




Ousama Al-Gosaibi, managing director of Masam, the Saudi Project for Landmine Clearance, speaks to Katie Jensen in the latest episode of the Arab News “Frankly Speaking” show. (AN photo)

Often referred to as the perfect soldiers — never needing to eat, sleep, or ever leave their post — landmines can remain in the earth for years even after the end of hostilities, posing a lasting threat to civilians, particularly children, unless they are painstakingly cleared.

When Saudi Arabia and Iran signed their historic normalization deal, brokered by China, on March 10 this year, there were hopes that the Houthis, long armed and funded by Tehran, would cooperate with demining efforts.

But despite the Houthis being a signatory of the Stockholm Agreement, which requires them to hand over details of what explosives have been planted and detailed maps outlining where they are located, progress has failed to materialize.

“That has not happened to date,” said Al-Gosaibi. “So as far as our work is concerned, I have not seen any improvements.”

For Masam, the battle against landmines has been an uphill one. The movement of the front line over the course of the conflict has meant that areas once liberated by the Yemeni government and cleared by Al-Gosaibi’s teams have since been retaken and re-mined by Houthi forces.




Land-mine clearing experts at work in Yemen's battlefields. (Twitter: @Masam_ENG)

“We have cleared over 400,000 items. That includes mines, both anti-personnel and anti-tank. That includes a huge number of UXOs, unexploded ordnance, and an even huger number of improvised explosive devices,” he said.

“When you talk about the Masam project, (we) have cleared to date over 7,800 improvised devices such as rock mines in Yemen. This number did not exist anywhere else in the world. This number is mind-boggling. This has never ever happened anywhere else in the world.”

According to some estimates, Yemen is awash with more landmines than were used during the Second World War. Asked how many landmines have been planted in Yemen, Al-Gosaibi could offer only a ballpark figure, such is the paucity of data provided by the Houthis.

“I would say anywhere between 1 and 2 million mines. These are newly laid mines. I’m not taking into account mines that existed in Yemen prior to the Houthi problem.”

The Ottawa Treaty of 1997, often referred to as the Mine Ban Treaty, relates to anti-personnel mines, but does not refer to anti-tank mines. Al-Gosaibi says the Houthis have taken advantage of this grey area to create improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, using anti-tank mines.

“Instead of having an anti-tank (mine) that would explode at a weight of about over 120 or over 150 kilograms, they reduced it to less than 10 kilograms. That, if a child walks over those pressure plates, you won’t find anything left of him. So, you can imagine what would happen to a human if an anti-tank mine explodes next to him.

“But the problem is, to date, these improvised mines, the improvised IEDs, are not within the international community terminology. They have not found a terminology, but they have not come up with any rules or regulations that talk about them.”

Al-Gosaibi estimates that the number of people maimed and killed by landmines in Yemen over the course of the conflict is in the thousands. As there are several mine action groups working in different parts of Yemen, there is no single database on victims.

“There’s a stigma that’s always associated with mine accidents in Yemen,” said Al-Gosaibi. “You have women who’ve got divorced because they’ve lost a limb. A man who’s lost the ability to support a family of seven or eight because of a mine accident.

“The UN announced last week that more than half of the accidents that happened to children in Yemen are directly related to mines. That’s a huge number. Mines affect the education system, the medical system, water supplies, farmland, (grazing) land.”

And civilians are not the only ones in danger. Several members of Al-Gosaibi’s staff have been wounded or even killed while clearing landmines and explosive remnants.

“As far as Masam (is concerned), we have lost 30 of our comrades in Yemen, 47 injured, 30 fatalities. Some of them are extremely close friends that I’ve worked with for the past 18 years. So yes, we paid a high price in Yemen.”

Despite the international community’s efforts to ban the use of landmines, they remain in wide use in conflicts across the world owing to their powerful psychological impact and low cost to produce.

“To plant a mine is cheap. You’re talking tens of dollars,” said Al-Gosaibi. “(The) UN estimates that in clearing mines, each mine could cost anywhere between $500 to $1,000 to clear.

“So, there is no comparison between the cost of actually planting it and clearing it. The Houthis today are using locally manufactured mines. They are not importing mines. They have (received) assistance in creating their own factories.”

The UN has attempted to take a balanced approach to funding landmine clearance operations, not only in areas controlled by the internationally recognized government in Aden, but also within the Houthi administration in Sanaa.

Al-Gosaibi believes this approach is a waste of time and money, because the mine action work in Houthi-controlled areas lacks transparency and accountability.

“I don’t believe in holding the stick from the middle,” he said. “I don’t see the benefit of supporting a Sanaa-based mine action program when we know that the Houthis are behind planting, manufacturing all those mines and IEDs in Yemen.

“The UN has this policy that: ‘We need to hold the stick from the middle. We need to support Sanaa. We need to support Aden and Marib.’ I think it’s a waste of time and money.

“If you want to assist Yemenis, I don’t care who they are, who they belong to, north, south, Houthi, non-Houthi. I’m talking about if you want to assist the local population, there are proper ways of doing it.

“You can supervise proper mine action, demining teams under the Houthi-controlled areas, under your supervision. Like we are doing in our areas. We have a very close working relationship with the Yemeni Mine Action program. And it’s working.




Land-mine clearing is a tedious and dangerous job and and a never-ending one in Yemen's battlefields. (Twitter: @Masam_ENG)

“You should (see) over there. You know, that’s if you actually want to clear mines, not only pay and talk about (and say): ‘Oh, we have funded this and we’ve funded that.’

“Where’s the money going? I have not seen (where). Masam is the only project or entity in Yemen that announces their figures every Sunday morning. And those figures have been reviewed, rectified, notarized, you name it, whatever, by the Yemen Mine Action Center, by our own operational team before they are published every Sunday morning.”

Until the supply of components to the Houthis is halted, Al-Gosaibi believes landmines will only continue to proliferate in Yemen. That means Iran and its proxies in the region must cease arms trafficking.

“We know the chain is coming, financed by Iran, even though they’re coming from some other countries,” said Al-Gosaibi.

“Drones in Yemen had German-made engines in them. Who’s going to get German-made engines smuggled into Yemen? It cannot be a small organization. It has to be a proper government who has a lot of hands around the areas who can get that smuggled into Yemen.”




Masam landmine workers preparing to explode landmines cleared from a battlefield in Yemen. (Twitter: @Masam_ENG))

Six years since the Saudi Project for Landmine Clearance began work in Yemen, and despite remarkable progress, Al-Gosaibi feels there are still many years of work ahead before his team can declare “mission accomplished.”

He said: “I can only say that if there’s an absolute proper truce in Yemen and all the fronts are open and we are working there, then you could give an estimate (on how long). No one knows what’s on those fronts at the moment since we are not working on an active front.”

He hopes the Houthis will provide detailed maps of their minefields to assist with clearance efforts, as failing to do so would only prolong the threat posed to Yemeni civilians and mine clearers.

“It will just delay the problem, increase the number of victims, increase the number of mine action personnel (harmed) over the years to come.

“(Even) if you have proper funding, proper number of teams and proper information ... I would give it another 10 years.”

 


Turkiye backing Syria’s military and has no immediate withdrawal plans, defense minister says

Updated 04 June 2025
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Turkiye backing Syria’s military and has no immediate withdrawal plans, defense minister says

  • Guler says Israel de-confliction talks continue
  • Turkish troops stay for now in Syria, he tells Reuters

ANKARA: Turkiye is training and advising Syria’s armed forces and helping improve its defenses, and has no immediate plans for the withdrawal or relocation of its troops stationed there, Defense Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters.
Turkiye has emerged as a key foreign ally of Syria’s new government since rebels — some of them backed for years by Ankara — ousted former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December to end his family’s five-decade rule.
It has promised to help rebuild neighboring Syria and facilitate the return of millions of Syrian civil war refugees, and played a key role last month getting US and European sanctions on Syria lifted.
The newfound Turkish influence in Damascus has raised Israeli concerns and risked a standoff or worse in Syria between the regional powers.
In written answers to questions from Reuters, Guler said Turkiye and Israel — which carried out its latest airstrikes on southern Syria late on Tuesday — are continuing de-confliction talks to avoid military accidents in the country.
Turkiye’s overall priority in Syria is preserving its territorial integrity and unity, and ridding it of terrorism, he said, adding Ankara was supporting Damascus in these efforts.
“We have started providing military training and consultancy services, while taking steps to increase Syria’s defense capacity,” Guler said, without elaborating on those steps.
Named to the post by President Tayyip Erdogan two years ago, Guler said it was too early to discuss possible withdrawal or relocation of the more than 20,000 Turkish troops in Syria.
Ankara controlled swathes of northern Syria and established dozens of bases there after several cross-border operations in recent years against Kurdish militants it deems terrorists.
This can “only be re-evaluated when Syria achieves peace and stability, when the threat of terrorism in the region is fully removed, when our border security is fully ensured, and when the honorable return of people who had to flee is done,” he said.
NATO member Turkiye has accused Israel of undermining Syrian peace and rebuilding with its military operations there in recent months and, since late 2023, has also fiercely criticized Israel’s assault on Gaza.
But the two regional powers have been quietly working to establish a de-confliction mechanism in Syria.
Guler described the talks as “technical level meetings to establish a de-confliction mechanism to prevent unwanted events” or direct conflict, as well as “a communication and coordination structure.”
“Our efforts to form this line and make it fully operational continue. Yet it should not be forgotten that the de-confliction mechanism is not a normalization,” he told Reuters.


Turkiye arrests five mayors from CHP opposition party

Updated 04 June 2025
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Turkiye arrests five mayors from CHP opposition party

  • The latest round of arrests brings to nine the total number of jailed CHP mayors

ISTANBUL: Turkish police arrested five opposition mayors early Wednesday alongside 17 others as part of a probe into corruption allegations at CHP-held municipalities, a party spokesman told AFP.

The latest arrests targeted a former lawmaker and three CHP mayors in Istanbul, and two more in the southern province of Adana, the spokesman said.

The latest round of arrests brings to nine the total number of jailed CHP mayors, including Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu — the main political rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The latest investigation began at the weekend when a court issued arrest orders for 47 municipal officials in connection with four separate corruption investigations centered on Istanbul, local media reported.

The March 19 arrest and jailing of Imamoglu sparked the biggest street protests Turkiye had seen in more than a decade.

Police had already detained nearly 70 people in subsequent raids linked to alleged corruption at Istanbul City Hall, including Imamoglu’s private secretary and his private protection officer.

The CHP has nominated Imamoglu as its candidate in presidential elections due in 2028 but whether he can run in the elections depends on the fate of numerous trials and probes.


Gaza aid sites shut, as Israel issues ‘combat zones’ warning

Updated 04 June 2025
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Gaza aid sites shut, as Israel issues ‘combat zones’ warning

  • Announcement follows a string of deadly incidents near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites
  • On Tuesday, 27 people were killed in southern Gaza when Israeli troops opened fire near a GHF aid site

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: A US and Israeli-backed group operating aid sites in the Gaza Strip announced the temporary closure of the facilities on Wednesday, with the Israeli army warning that roads leading to distribution centers were “considered combat zones.”

The announcement by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) follows a string of deadly incidents near the distribution sites it operates that have sparked condemnation from the United Nations.

Israeli bombardment on Wednesday killed at least 16 people in the Gaza Strip, including 12 in a single strike on a tent housing displaced people, the Palestinian territory’s civil defense agency said.

On Tuesday, 27 people were killed in southern Gaza when Israeli troops opened fire near a GHF aid site, with the military saying the incident was under investigation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the deaths of people seeking food aid as “unacceptable,” and the world body’s rights chief condemned attacks on civilians as “a war crime” following a similar incident near the same site on Sunday.

Israel recently eased its blockade of Gaza, but the UN says the territory’s entire population remains at risk of famine.

The GHF said its “distribution centers will be closed for renovation, reorganization and efficiency improvement work” on Wednesday and would resume operations on Thursday.

The Israeli army, which confirmed the temporary closure, warned against traveling “on roads leading to the distribution centers, which are considered combat zones.”

The GHF, officially a private effort with opaque funding, began operations a week ago but the UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with it over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

Israeli authorities and the GHF, which uses contracted US security, have denied allegations that the Israeli army shot at civilians rushing to pick up aid packages.

Food shortages in Gaza have propelled fresh international calls for an end to the war, but a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas remains elusive.

The UN Security Council will vote Wednesday on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian access to Gaza, a measure expected to be vetoed by key Israel backer the United States.

At a hospital in southern Gaza, the family of Reem Al-Akhras, who was killed in Tuesday’s shooting near GHF’s facility, were beside themselves with grief.

“She went to bring us some food, and this is what happened to her,” her son Zain Zidan said, his face streaked with tears.

Akhras’s husband, Mohamed Zidan, said “every day unarmed people” were being killed.

“This is not humanitarian aid – it’s a trap.”

The Israeli military maintains that its forces do not prevent Gazans from collecting aid.

Army spokesperson Effie Defrin said the Israeli soldiers had fired toward suspects who “were approaching in a way that endangered” the troops, adding that the “incident is being investigated.”

UN human rights chief Volker Turk called attacks against civilians “unconscionable” and said they “constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross meanwhile said “Gazans face an “unprecedented scale and frequency of recent mass casualty incidents.”

Scenes of hunger in Gaza have also sparked fresh solidarity with Palestinians, and a boat organized by an international activist coalition was sailing toward Gaza, aiming to deliver aid.

The boat from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition departed Sicily Sunday carrying a dozen people, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg, along with fruit juices, milk, tinned food and protein bars.

“Together, we can open a people’s sea corridor to Gaza,” the coalition said.

But Israel’s military said Tuesday it was ready to “protect” the country’s maritime space.

When asked about the Freedom Flotilla vessel, army spokesman Defrin said “for this case as well, we are prepared,” declining to go into detail.

Israel has stepped up its offensive in Gaza in what it says is a renewed push to defeat the Palestinian group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the war.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 4,240 people have been killed since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,510, mostly civilians.

Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The army said three of its soldiers had been killed in northern Gaza, bringing the number of Israeli troops killed in the territory since the start of the war to 424.


Ten Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on school in Gaza’s Khan Younis

Updated 45 min 25 sec ago
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Ten Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on school in Gaza’s Khan Younis

  • Residents say Israeli military escalated airstrikes and tank shelling on parts of Khan Younis
  • Israeli military earlier dropped leaflets warning residents to leave their homes and head west

CAIRO: An Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced Palestinian families killed at least 10 people, including children, on Wednesday, local health authorities said.

Residents said Israeli military escalated airstrikes and tank shelling on parts of Khan Younis, a day after it dropped leaflets warning residents to leave their homes and head west, saying forces would fight Hamas and other militants in those areas.


Israel strikes Syria after projectiles fired, holds Sharaa responsible

Updated 04 June 2025
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Israel strikes Syria after projectiles fired, holds Sharaa responsible

  • Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said bombardments had hit farmland in the province, without reporting casualties

CAIRO: Israel has carried out its first airstrikes in Syria in nearly a month, saying it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles toward Israel and holding interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa responsible.

Damascus said Israeli strikes caused “heavy human and material losses,” reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party and stressing the need to end the presence of armed groups and establish state control in the south.

Israel had not struck Syria since early May — a month marked by US President Donald Trump’s meeting with Sharaa, the lifting of US sanctions, and direct Syrian-Israeli contacts to calm tensions, as reported by Reuters last week.

Describing its new rulers as jihadists, Israel has bombed Syria frequently this year. Israel has also moved troops into areas of the southwest, where it has said it won’t allow the new government’s security forces to deploy.

The projectiles Israel reported fired from Syria were the first since longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad was toppled. The Israeli military said the two projectiles fell in open areas.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he held the Syrian president “directly responsible for any threat and fire toward the State of Israel.”

A Syrian foreign ministry statement said the accuracy of the reports of shelling toward Israel had not yet been verified.

“We believe that there are many parties that may seek to destabilize the region to achieve their own interests,” the Syrian foreign ministry added, as reported by the state news agency.

A Syrian official told Reuters such parties included “remnants of Assad-era militias linked to Iran, which have long been active in the Quneitra area” and have “a vested interest in provoking Israeli retaliation as a means of escalating tensions and undermining current stabilization efforts.”

Several Arab and Palestinian media outlets circulated a claim of responsibility from a little-known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024.

Reuters could not independently verify the statement.

The Syrian state news agency and security sources reported Israeli strikes targeting sites in the Damascus countryside and Quneitra and Daraa provinces.

Local residents contacted by Reuters said Israeli shelling targeted agricultural areas in the Wadi Yarmouk region. They described increased tensions in recent weeks, including reported Israeli incursions into villages, where residents have reportedly been barred from sowing their crops.

An Israeli strike also hit a former Syrian army base near the city of Izraa, a Syrian source said.

Israel has said its goals in Syria include protecting the Druze, a religious minority with followers in both countries.

Israel, which has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Middle East war, bombed Syria frequently during the last decade of Assad’s rule, targeting the sway of his Iranian allies.

The newly-appointed US envoy to Syria said last week he believed peace between Syria and Israel was achievable.

Around the same time that Israel reported the projectiles from Syria, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile from Yemen.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they targeted Israel’s Jaffa with a ballistic missile. The group says it has been launching attacks against Israel in support of Palestinians during the Israeli war in Gaza.