New Houthi-minted currency increases economic divide in Yemen

A new coin currency issued by the Houthi-run Sanaa-based Central Bank of Yemen is displayed on a screen during a press conference in Sanaa, Yemen, March 30, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 31 March 2024
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New Houthi-minted currency increases economic divide in Yemen

  • Militia accused of attempting to cover up deaths of people in central province of Radda after blowing up their homes

AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Houthi militia has issued a new 100-riyal coin for the first time in nearly a decade, a move that sparked the ire of the Aden-based central bank.

Hashem Ismael, the governor of the Houthi-controlled central bank, revealed during a news conference in Sanaa on Sunday that they had produced a new 100-riyal coin, which will go into circulation on Sunday and replace the damaged 100-riyal banknote.

The Houthi official did not provide many details as to how they minted the new currency but did state that it was coined in accordance with the “latest international specifications and standards” and that they planned to introduce coin currencies in lesser quantity.

In Aden, the central bank described the Houthi move as “illegal” and “escalatory” and urged residents and financial institutions in Houthi-controlled areas to avoid using the new “fake” currency.

“The militia will be held accountable for this irresponsible escalation, as well as the resulting complexity and uncertainty in people’s transactions with financial and banking institutions,” the central bank in Aden said in its statement.

The Houthi central bank allayed concerns about the potential devolution of the Yemeni riyal in certain areas or the legal grounds for issuing the new coin currency by stating that the new currency would replace existing banknotes in the market that are in short supply and that the new coin was issued under the bank’s regulations.

Yemen is separated into two economic areas: one in the southern city of Aden, held by the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and the other in Sanaa, controlled by Iran-backed Houthis.

The Yemeni government moved the central bank’s headquarters from Sanaa to Aden in 2016 after accusing the Houthis of stealing the bank’s funds and using them to support their war effort.

The Houthis replied by ceasing to pay public employees in regions under their control, as well as prohibiting residents from using Aden-issued banknotes.

The Houthis also began an economic war against the Yemeni government, preventing traders from importing commodities through Yemeni government-controlled ports and attacking oil terminals in Hadramout and Shabwa.

In the Houthi territory, the Yemeni riyal is traded at 533 riyals per dollar, whereas in government-controlled territories, it is traded at 1,661 riyals per dollar.

When the Houthis seized power by force in late 2014, the riyal traded at 215 per dollar.

Mustafa Nasr, director of the Studies and Economic Media Center, said that launching the new coin currency will deepen the economic divide and worsen the economic war between the Yemeni government and the Houthis.

He added that the Houthis would issue further new currencies.

“This measure serves as a test of the pulse to continue producing further monetary denominations of currency as needed, as well as establishing an independent economy,” Nasr said.

He argues that the impact of the Houthi move will be determined by responses from Aden’s central bank and international monetary agencies, as well as the volume of the new coin money in circulation.

“Despite the higher expense of minting coins, the Houthi group prefers them because they are easier to mint and obtain.”

Meanwhile, Yemen’s government and human rights advocates have accused the Houthis of attempting to cover up the deaths of people in the central province of Radda after blowing up their homes.

On March 19, the Houthis detonated a house in Radaa, Al-Bayda, killing at least nine civilians from one family and injuring dozens more.

The Houthis agreed to reconstruct the damaged houses, recompense the families of the deceased, and prosecute those responsible for the deaths.

Nasser Ali Al-Sanae, a Yemeni activist from Radaa who fled Houthi repression and now lives in Marib city, says that the Houthis forced Ibrahim Al-Raimi, the family’s last living member, to sign a document to bury his family and that the Houthis have not tried any of the soldiers who blew up the houses.

The Houthis said they had questioned the soldiers and compensated the affected families.

 


Iran president denies providing hypersonic missiles to Yemen’s Houthis

Updated 56 min ago
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Iran president denies providing hypersonic missiles to Yemen’s Houthis

TEHRAN: Tehran has not sent hypersonic missiles to Yemen’s Houthis, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a televised news conference on Monday, a day after the Iran-backed group said a missile it fired at Israel was a hypersonic one.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a “heavy price” on the Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time.
“It takes a person a week to travel to Yemen (from Iran), how could this missile have gotten there? We don’t have such missiles to provide to Yemen,” Pezeshkian said.
However, last year Iran presented what it described as Tehran’s first domestically made hypersonic ballistic missile, with state media publishing pictures of the missile named “Fattah” at a ceremony.


Israeli minister says time running out for diplomatic solution with Hezbollah in Lebanon

Updated 16 September 2024
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Israeli minister says time running out for diplomatic solution with Hezbollah in Lebanon

  • “The possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out,” Gallant told Austin in a phone call
  • As long as Hezbollah continued to tie itself to the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been engaged for almost a year, “the trajectory is clear,” he said

JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that the window was closing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon.
Gallant’s remarks came as the White House Special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel to discuss the crisis on the northern border where Israeli troops have been exchanging missile fire with Hezbollah forces for months.
“The possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out,” Gallant told Austin in a phone call, according to a statement from his office.
As long as Hezbollah continued to tie itself to the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been engaged for almost a year, “the trajectory is clear,” he said.
The visit by Hochstein, who is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, comes amid efforts to find a diplomatic path out of the crisis, which has forced tens of thousands on both sides of the border to leave their homes.
On Monday, Israeli media reported that the head of the army’s northern command had recommended a rapid border operation to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
While the war in Gaza has been Israel’s main focus since the attack by Hamas-led gunmen on Oct. 7 last year, the precarious situation in the north has fueled fears of a regional conflict that could drag in the United States and Iran.
A missile barrage by Hezbollah the day after Oct. 7 opened the latest phase of conflict and since then there have been daily exchanges of rockets, artillery fire and missiles, with Israeli jets striking deep into Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah has said it does not seek a wider war at present but would fight if Israel launched one.
Israeli officials have said for months that Israel cannot accept the clearance of its northern border areas indefinitely but while troops remain committed to Gaza, there have also been questions about the military’s readiness for an invasion of southern Lebanon.
However, some of the hard-line members of the Israeli government have been pressing for action and on Monday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a longtime foe of Gallant, called for him to be sacked.
“We need a decision in the north and Gallant is not the right person to lead it,” he said in a statement on the social media platform X.
Hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed in the exchanges of fire, which have left communities on both sides of the border as virtual ghost towns.
The two sides came close to all-out war last month after Israeli forces killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut in retaliation for a missile strike that killed 12 youngsters in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
On Monday, Israel’s defense ministry said it had approved the distribution of 9,000 automatic rifles to civilian rapid response units in northern Israel and the Golan Heights.


UNRWA chief: Gaza polio vaccination coverage has reached 90 percent

Updated 16 September 2024
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UNRWA chief: Gaza polio vaccination coverage has reached 90 percent

  • More than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza were vaccinated

GAZA: Polio vaccination coverage in Gaza has reached 90 percent, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency said on Monday, adding that the next step was to ensure hundreds of thousands of children got a second dose at the end of the month.
The campaign to vaccinate some 640,000 children in Gaza under 10 years of age against polio, which began on Sept. 1, presented major challenges to UNRWA and its partners due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
It followed confirmation by the World Health Organization (WHO) last month that a baby had been partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the Palestinian territory in 25 years.
More than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza were vaccinated earlier this month before a campaign to vaccinate a final 200,000 children in north Gaza began on September 10 despite access restrictions, evacuation orders and shortages of fuel.
The first round of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza ended successfully, UNRWA’s chief Philippe Lazzarini said, adding that 90 percent of the enclave’s children had received a first dose.
“Parties to the conflict have largely respected the different required “humanitarian pauses” showing that when there is a political will, assistance can be provided without disruption. Our next challenge is to provide children with their second dose at the end of September,” he wrote on X.
Israel began its military campaign in Gaza on Oct. 7 last year after Hamas led a shock incursion into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The resulting assault on Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health ministry, and reduced much of the territory to rubble.


Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta

Updated 16 September 2024
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Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta

  • Some attempted to breach a border fence that has long been a flashpoint for sporadic migration tensions, the Spanish Interior Ministry said
  • Moroccan authorities also arrested 60 people suspected of inciting a mass migration attempt on social networks

RABAT: Moroccan security forces stopped groups of people who sought to force their way across the border into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta following a call on social networks for a mass migration attempt, authorities said.
Some attempted to breach a border fence that has long been a flashpoint for sporadic migration tensions, but none successfully made it into Spain, the Spanish Interior Ministry said Monday. It said Spanish and Moroccan security efforts over recent days ″allowed the situation to be brought under control.”
Online messages in recent days had called for people to head for Ceuta on Sunday to cross the border into Europe. Videos posted by local networks showed groups of people in the hills around the Moroccan border town of Fnideq, and a heightened Moroccan security presence, including helicopters.
Moroccan authorities also arrested 60 people suspected of inciting a mass migration attempt on social networks, Moroccan intelligence agency DGSN said in a Facebook post.
Ceuta and Melilla — two tiny Spanish territories in North Africa bordering the Mediterranean — have long been targeted by migrants and refugees seeking better lives in Europe. Many attempt to climb over barbed wire fences encircling the autonomous cities or reaching the exclaves by sea.
Nationwide, Moroccan security forces stopped more than 45,000 migration attempts from January to early September, according to the Moroccan Interior Ministry. In August alone, more than 11,000 migration attempts were prevented in the region around Ceuta and another 3,000 in the area around Melilla, it said in a statement.
Last month, thousands of migrants attempted to cross into Ceuta, including hundreds of young people who tried to swim their way around controls, according to Spanish authorities.


Jailed Iranian Nobel laureate urges action against ‘oppression’ of women

Updated 16 September 2024
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Jailed Iranian Nobel laureate urges action against ‘oppression’ of women

PARIS: Jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi on Monday urged the international community to act to end the “oppression” of women in Iran, two years after the start of a women-led protest movement.
“I call on international institutions and people around the world... to take active action. I urge the United Nations to end its silence and inaction in the face of the devastating oppression and discrimination by theocratic and authoritarian governments against women by criminalizing gender apartheid,” she said in a letter written in Tehran’s Evin prison on Saturday and published by her foundation on Monday.