AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s internationally recognized government have reached an agreement with the Houthis, facilitated by Saudi Arabia, to lift economic sanctions and increase the number of Yemenia Airways flights from Houthi-held Sanaa.
Hans Grundberg, the UN’s special envoy for Yemen, said both parties agreed to ease economic hostilities by canceling their most recent actions taken against banks in areas the other controls and pledged to halt all such measures in the future.
They agreed to increase the frequency of national carrier Yemenia’s flights from Sanaa to Jordan from one to three a day and to introduce daily flights from the capital to Cairo and India. In addition, the two sides will hold discussions about administrative, technological and budgetary issues related to the airline.
They will also hold talks on the humanitarian and economic challenges under an UN-proposed peace plan known as “the road map.”
Following the surprise announcement, Grundberg said the UN was ready to work with all parties to implement the agreed measures. He also “recognized the significant role of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in bringing this agreement about.”
The economic dispute between the government and the Houthis escalated in recent weeks when the government’s Central Bank sanctioned six banks in Houthi-held Sanaa and withdrew their licenses after they refused to relocate their headquarters from Sanaa to government stronghold Aden. The Central Bank had also withdrawn banknotes printed before 2016, which were in extensive use in Houthi-controlled areas, and shut down currency-exchange companies.
The economic sanctions were introduced after the Houthis this year, for the first time since the start of the civil war a decade ago, minted a new currency. The Yemeni government viewed this as an effort by the militia to establish an autonomous economy. The government also ordered Yemenia and telecoms companies to relocate their headquarters to Aden.
In an attempt to put pressure on the government to end its severe economic sanctions, the Houthis seized control of four Yemenia aircraft last month, announced that they would run the airline from Sanaa and threatened to fully restart the war. The militia previously attacked oil terminals in the government-controlled provinces of Shabwa and Hadramout, halting oil exports and preventing the circulation of banknotes printed by the Central Bank. They also banned traders in areas under their control from importing goods through the government and blocked the import of gas from the central city of Marib.
The Yemeni government said it eased its economic sanctions and reached an agreement with the Houthis to avoid exacerbating the economic crisis in militia-controlled areas, in response to requests from the business community and to comply with UN, regional and international mediation efforts.
“The government reiterates its steadfast determination not to subject Yemeni citizens in regions violently controlled by Houthi militia to additional living costs as a consequence of the militants’ unilateral actions, and to allow them to travel,” the official SABA news agency reported.
However critics of the deal, such as Kamel Al-Khoudani from the political bureau of the Yemeni National Resistance, said the government had conceded to Houthi demands for additional flights and an end to punitive measures against banks in Sanaa even though the militia had failed to meet counter-demands, including the resumption of oil exports.
Supporters, such as Yemeni journalist Sami Al-Kaf, argued that the government had successfully coerced the Houthis, who have previously rejected all demands to participate in negotiations, into agreeing to economic talks.
Houthis and Yemeni government agree to end economic hostilities, expand Yemenia flights
https://arab.news/9crj6
Houthis and Yemeni government agree to end economic hostilities, expand Yemenia flights
- UN’s special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, welcomes deal and acknowledges ‘significant role’ of Saudi Arabia in achieving it
- Following the surprise announcement, Grundberg said the UN was ready to work with all parties to implement the agreed measures
Gaza war in its 12th month with truce hopes slim
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have all been mediating in an effort to bring about a ceasefire in the war
GAZA: The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza entered its 12 month Saturday with little sign of respite for the Palestinian territory or hope for Israeli hostages still held captive.
The chances of a truce that would also swap Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel for hostages held by Hamas appear slim, with both sides sticking doggedly to their positions.
Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel sparked the war, is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists troops must remain along the Gaza-Egypt border.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have all been mediating in an effort to bring about a ceasefire in the war that authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza say has killed at least 40,939 people.
According to the United Nations human rights office, most of the dead are women and children.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians including some hostages killed in captivity, according to official Israeli figures.
Of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the attack, 97 remain in Gaza including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Scores were released during a one-week truce in November.
Israel’s announcement last Sunday that the bodies of six hostages including a US-Israeli citizen had been recovered shortly after being killed sparked grief and anger in Israel.
Marking the anniversary, UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) chief Philippe Lazzarini posted on X on Saturday: “Eleven months. Enough. No one can take this any longer. Humanity must prevail. Ceasefire now.”
International pressure to end the war was further underlined by Friday’s shooting dead in the West Bank of a Turkish-American activist demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the occupied territory.
The family of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has demanded an independent investigation into her death, saying on Saturday her life “was taken needlessly, unlawfully, and violently by the Israeli military.”
The UN rights office said Israeli forces killed Eygi with a “shot in the head.”
Turkiye said she was killed by “Israeli occupation soldiers,” and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the Israeli action as “barbaric.”
The United States called her death “tragic,” and has pressed its close ally Israel to investigate.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank — where about 490,000 people live — are illegal under international law.
Since Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 662 Palestinians in the West Bank which Israel occupied in 1967, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, Israeli officials say.
Eygi’s death came on the day Israeli forces withdrew from a deadly 10-day raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, where AFP journalists reported residents returning home to widespread destruction.
The Jenin pullout came with Israel at loggerheads with the United States over talks to forge a truce in the Gaza war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday “90 percent is agreed” and urged Israel and Hamas to finalize a deal.
But Netanyahu denied this, telling Fox News: “It’s not close.”
Hamas is demanding Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, saying it agreed months ago to a proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden.
AFP reporters said several air strikes and shelling rocked the territory overnight and early Saturday.
Gaza’s civil defense agency and the Palestinian Red Crescent said an Israeli air strike killed four people near the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The civil defense and a witness said an air strike that targeted a flat in Bureij camp killed another four.
And in Jabalia, an Israeli air strike killed four more Palestinians, civil defense officials said.
They added that a woman and a child were also killed in an air strike north of Gaza City.
Medics reported at least 33 Palestinians wounded in an air strike on a residential area in Beit Lahia and said they were being treated at Al-Awda, Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals.
In the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, the civil defense said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced people killed at least three people and wounded more than 20.
Israel has also traded fire with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement since the October 7 attack.
On Saturday Hezbollah said it targeted two Israeli bases with Katyusha rockets. Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israel carried out air strikes and shelling of several areas of the country’s south.
The Israeli military said it detected missiles crossing from Lebanon, intercepting some of them. It said it later struck a Hezbollah launch site in the Qabrikha area of southern Lebanon, as well as Aita Al-Shaab and Kfarshuba.
Turkiye’s Erdogan calls for Islamic alliance against Israel
- “The only step that will stop Israeli arrogance, Israeli banditry, and Israeli state terrorism is the alliance of Islamic countries,” Erdogan said
- He said recent steps that Turkiye has taken to improve ties with Egypt and Syria are aimed at “forming a line of solidarity against the growing threat of expansionism”
ISTANBUL: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Islamic countries should form an alliance against what he called “the growing threat of expansionism” from Israel.
He made the comment after describing what Palestinian and Turkish officials said was the killing by Israeli troops of a Turkish-American woman taking part in a protest on Friday against settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“The only step that will stop Israeli arrogance, Israeli banditry, and Israeli state terrorism is the alliance of Islamic countries,” Erdogan said at an Islamic schools’ association event near Istanbul.
He said recent steps that Turkiye has taken to improve ties with Egypt and Syria are aimed at “forming a line of solidarity against the growing threat of expansionism,” which he said also threatened Lebanon and Syria.
Erdogan hosted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Ankara this week and they discussed the Gaza war and ways to further repair their long-frozen ties during what was the first such presidential visit in 12 years.
Ties between them started thawing in 2020 when Turkiye began diplomatic efforts to ease tensions with estranged regional rivals, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Erdogan said in July that Turkiye would extend an invitation to Syrian President Bashar Assad “any time” for possible talks to restore relations between the two neighbors, who severed ties in 2011 after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.
Israel did not immediately comment on Erdogan’s remarks on Saturday.
Israel’s military said after Friday’s incident that it was looking into reports that a female foreign national “was killed as a result of shots fired in the area. The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review.
There was no immediate comment on Friday’s incident from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Morocco stops 45,000 migrants from crossing to Europe in 2024
- It did not give comparative data for the same period in 2023
- Last year, Morocco stopped 75,184 people from illegally crossing to Europe, up 6 percent from a year earlier, government data showed
RABAT: Morocco has stopped 45,015 people from illegally migrating to Europe since January and busted 177 migrant trafficking gangs, Morocco’s state news agency MAP reported on Friday, citing interior ministry data.
It did not give comparative data for the same period in 2023 and the interior ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Last year, Morocco stopped 75,184 people from illegally crossing to Europe, up 6 percent from a year earlier, government data showed.
The Moroccan navy has also rescued 10,859 migrants at sea so far this year, MAP said, citing the interior ministry data.
“In 2024, Morocco continues to face an increasing migratory pressure as a direct outcome of the prevailing instability in the Sahel region and porous borders,” it quoted the ministry as saying.
The North African country has for long been a major launch pad for African migrants aiming to reach Europe through the Mediterranean, the Atlantic or by jumping the fence surrounding the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
Morocco and Spain have strengthened their cooperation in addressing illegal migration since they patched up a separate diplomatic feud in 2022.
Last month, however, hundreds of migrants took advantage of a thick mist to swim to Ceuta, according to Spanish police.
Tighter surveillance of Morocco’s northern borders is prompting an increasing number of migrants to try the riskier and longer Atlantic route to the Canary Islands.
Families flee intense fighting near Sudan’s Khartoum
- Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces attacked the Hattab base in Khartoum North, also known as Bahri, on Wednesday
- The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Hundreds of families fled a northern suburb of Sudan’s capital Khartoum on Saturday after fighting between the army and paramilitaries intensified around a key military base, witnesses said.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces attacked the Hattab base in Khartoum North, also known as Bahri, on Wednesday.
The army, led by de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, is locked in conflict with the RSF led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The war began in April 2023 and has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
“Since this morning, the army has been firing artillery toward the south of Hattab while military planes are flying over” the area, one witness said on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Nasr El-Din, a resident who asked that only his first name be used for security reasons, said the RSF “attacked houses south (of the Hattab base), capturing citizens and killing others.”
“Since early morning, hundreds of families have left for the north, carrying their belongings on their heads,” he added in an account corroborated by another witness.
UN experts on Friday called for the deployment of an “independent and impartial force” to protect millions of civilians driven from their homes in Sudan.
After an independent fact-finding mission mandated by the Human Rights Council, the UN experts said “harrowing” violations by both sides had been uncovered, “which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Meanwhile more than 25 million people — upwards of half Sudan’s population — face acute hunger, with full-blown famine declared in a camp for displaced people in the volatile western region of Darfur.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday began a two-day visit to Port Sudan, the de facto seat of government after fighting forced the authorities out of Khartoum.
He met a health minister and will also meet other officials and visit health facilities, an AFP correspondent on the ground reported.
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 61 as UN pursues vaccinations
- Numerous rounds of diplomacy have so far failed to clinch a ceasefire deal to end the conflict
- Despite the deadlock, the UN has pursued a campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza
CAIRO: Israeli military strikes across the Palestinian Gaza Strip killed at least 61 people in the space of 24 hours, local medics said on Saturday, as Israeli forces battled Hamas-led militants in the territory.
Eleven months into the war, numerous rounds of diplomacy have so far failed to clinch a ceasefire deal to end the conflict and bring the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza as well as many Palestinians jailed in Israel.
An Israeli air strike in on the Halima Al-Sa’diyya school compound serving as a shelter for displaced people in the Jabalia urban refugee camp killed at least eight people and wounded 15 others, medics said.
The Israeli military said the strike had targeted a Hamas command center inside the compound. It accused Hamas of repeatedly exploiting civilians and civilian infrastructure for military purposes, an allegation Hamas denies.
Five more people were killed in a strike on a house in Gaza City.
The armed wings of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah groups said they had fought Israeli troops in Gaza City, in central areas and in the south with anti-tank rockets and mortars, and in some incidents detonated bombs to target tanks and other army vehicles.
The two warring sides continued to blame one another for the failure of mediators, including Qatar, Egypt and the United States, to broker a ceasefire. The US is preparing to present a new proposal, but the prospects of a breakthrough appear dim as gaps between the sides remain large. CIA Director William Burns, the chief US negotiator, told an event in London that a more detailed proposal would be made in the coming days.
PAUSES IN FIGHTING LET POLIO VACCINATIONS CONTINUE
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was incumbent on both Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which ran Gaza before the war and was responsible for the Oct. 7 killing spree against Jews in Israel that triggered it, to make concessions to reach a deal.
On Saturday, senior Hamas official Hossam Badran said the group had made no new demands and remained committed to a July 2 proposal put forward by the United States, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of attaching new conditions that would not end the war.
Netanyahu says it was Hamas that introduced unacceptable conditions.
Despite the deadlock, the United Nations, in collaboration with local health authorities, has pursued a campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza after its first polio case in around 25 years. Limited pauses in the fighting have allowed the campaign to proceed.
UN officials said they were making progress, having reached over half of the children needing the drops in the first two stages in the southern and central Gaza Strip.
On Sunday, the campaign will move to the northern Gaza Strip. A second round of vaccination will be required four weeks after the first.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the enclave has killed over 40,900 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court, which Israel denies.
