Houthis call for revenge over death of Hezbollah leader

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, flanked by two of his bodyguards, waves to the crowds at the massive “divine” rally in the southern suburbs of Beirut, in Sept. 2006. (AFP)
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Updated 28 September 2024
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Houthis call for revenge over death of Hezbollah leader

  • “The resistance will not be broken,” the group said
  • Both Hezbollah and the Houthis are part of the Axis of Resistance

AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Houthi militia on Saturday strongly condemned Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and vowed to support the Lebanese group in retaliation.

However, the Houthi’s calls for revenge came as many Yemenis expressed joy over Nasrallah’s death.

The Houthi Supreme Political Council described the Hezbollah leader as a “great mujahid” who opposed Israel and the US, while also supporting Palestinians, adding that his death would result in “the elimination of the Israeli enemy.”

The Houthi government also strongly condemned the killing, and called for punishment of both Israel and the US.

“We urge all free people around the world to continue working for justice and punishing the Israeli and American enemies,” the Houthi government in Sanaa said.

Nasrallah was killed on Friday in an Israeli strike on the group’s headquarters on the southern outskirts of Beirut.

Houthi sympathizers expressed support for the Lebanese group and called for vengeance.

“Revenge is coming, and victory is unavoidable,” Nasruddin Amer, a Houthi media official, said on X.

The Houthis are members of the so-called Axis of Resistance, which includes Iran-backed militias in the region, such as Hezbollah, and have long expressed support for the Lebanese group.

Hezbollah has been accused of training Houthi fighters both outside and inside Yemen, facilitating the transfer of Iranian weapons to Yemen, and harboring Houthis in Lebanon.

At the same time, critics of the Houthi militia have celebrated Nasrallah’s death, blaming him for fueling Houthi military expansions across Yemen that have resulted in the death of thousands of Yemenis and the displacement of millions.

Mohammed Al-Dhabyani, a Yemeni journalist who shared an old video of the Hezbollah leader expressing his support for the deadly Houthi offensive on Yemen’s central city of Marib, said that Nasrallah was responsible for the deaths of over a million people in Syria and half a million in Yemen, as well as the destruction of cities in both countries.

“If Hezbollah had not entered Yemen and provided training, armament, management, media, and political support to the Houthis, they would not have risen to their current status,” Al-Dhabyani told Arab News.

“We celebrate this criminal’s death because his hands are stained with our blood and has displaced us,” he added.

In early 2021, the Houthis renewed a major military offensive to seize control of the energy-rich city of Marib, an offensive that lasted more than a year and killed thousands of people.

The Houthis were forced to halt their attacks after failing to achieve their objective.

Nasrallah said at the start of the offensive that Marib would fall to the Houthis and that the militia would win the war, a remark that sparked outrage in Yemen against Hezbollah and was interpreted as proof of the organization’s support for the Houthis.

“If you celebrate the death of someone who murdered, raped, and displaced your family for more than a decade, you are a normal, very normal person, even if the killer is also your enemy,” Ahmed Al-Qurashi, a human rights activist, said on Facebook. 

According to Najeeb Ghallab, an undersecretary at Yemen’s Information Ministry and a political analyst, Iran has empowered Hezbollah to create a copy of the group in Yemen to serve its regional agendas.

Nasrallah’s death, he said, has reignited Yemenis’ hopes for the formation of an international coalition to assist the Yemeni government in defeating the Houthis.

“Yemenis are optimistic that the Houthis will face the same fate as Hezbollah. They do not want Israel to intervene, but they do want the international community to assist the Yemenis in a military operation to remove the Houthis,” Ghallab said.

He added: “The Iranian agent in Lebanon (Hezbollah) was in charge of completely supervising the Houthi establishment. As a result, the Houthis appear to be a copy of Hezbollah in terms of media, politics, and administration.”

Yemen’s war began a decade ago, when the Houthis militarily seized power and spread across the country, resulting in thousands of deaths, millions of displacements, and the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.  


Airstrikes target Yemen’s Sanaa after Houthi attack targets Israel

Updated 19 December 2024
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Airstrikes target Yemen’s Sanaa after Houthi attack targets Israel

DUBAI: A series of intense airstrikes shook Yemen’s Houthi-held capital early Thursday, shortly after a Houthi missile targeted central Israel.
It wasn’t immediately clear who launched the strikes on Sanaa, which the Houthis have held for over a decade.
American forces have launched a series of strikes on the Houthis over nearly a year due to Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea corridor. US military officials did not acknowledge a request for comment.
The strikes happened just after the Israeli military said its air force intercepted a missile launched from Yemen before it entered the country’s territory.
“Rocket and missile sirens were sounded following the possibility of falling debris from the interception,” the Israeli military said.


Israeli army says intercepted missile fired from Yemen

Updated 19 December 2024
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Israeli army says intercepted missile fired from Yemen

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said sirens sounded across central Israel as it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen on Thursday.
The Israeli Air Force “intercepted one missile that was launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory,” said a statement from the army, adding that there could be “falling debris from the interception.”


Blinken says Syria’s HTS should learn from Taliban isolation

Updated 19 December 2024
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Blinken says Syria’s HTS should learn from Taliban isolation

  • Blinken called for a “non-sectarian” Syrian government that protects minorities and addresses security concerns, including keeping the fight against the Daesh group

NEW YORK: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Wednesday on Syria’s triumphant HTS rebels to follow through on promises of inclusion, saying it can learn a lesson from the isolation of Afghanistan’s Taliban.
The Islamist movement rooted in Al-Qaeda and supported by Turkiye has promised to protect minorities since its lightning offensive toppled strongman Bashar Assad this month following years of stalemate.
“The Taliban projected a more moderate face, or at least tried to, in taking over Afghanistan, and then its true colors came out. The result is it remains terribly isolated around the world,” Blinken said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
After some initial overtures to the West, the Taliban reimposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law that includes barring women and girls from secondary school and university.
“So if you’re the emerging group in Syria,” Blinken said, “if you don’t want that isolation, then there’s certain things that you have to do in moving the country forward.”
Blinken called for a “non-sectarian” Syrian government that protects minorities and addresses security concerns, including keeping the fight against the Daesh group and removing lingering chemical weapons stockpiles.
Blinken said that HTS can also learn lessons from Assad on the need to reach a political settlement with other groups.
“Assad’s utter refusal to engage in any kind of political process is one of the things that sealed his downfall,” Blinken said.HTS


UN humanitarian chief urges massive aid boost for Syria: AFP interview

Updated 19 December 2024
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UN humanitarian chief urges massive aid boost for Syria: AFP interview

  • “Across the country, the needs are huge. Seven in 10 people are needing support right now,” Fletcher told AFP in a telephone interview as he visited Syria

DAMASCUS: Visiting UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called Wednesday for a massive aid boost for Syria to respond to “this moment of hope” after the ouster of longtime strongman Bashar Assad.
“Across the country, the needs are huge. Seven in 10 people are needing support right now,” Fletcher told AFP in a telephone interview as he visited Syria.
“I want to scale up massively international support, but that now depends on donors. The Syria fund has been historically, shamefully underfunded and now there is this opportunity,” he said.
“The Syrian people are trying to come home when it’s safe to do so, to rebuild their country, to rebuild their communities and their lives.
“We have to get behind them and to respond to this moment of hope. And if we don’t do that quickly, then I fear that this window will close.”
Half of Syria’s population were forced from their homes during nearly 14 years of civil war, with millions finding refuge abroad.
UN officials have said a $4 billion appeal for Syria aid is less than a third funded.
“There are massive humanitarian needs... water, food, shelter... There are needs in terms of government services, health, education, and then there are longer term rebuilding needs, development needs,” Fletcher said.
“We’ve got to be ambitious in our ask of donors.
“The Syrian people demand that we deliver, and they’re right to demand that we deliver,” he said. “The world hasn’t delivered for the Syrian people for more than a decade.”
As part of his visit, Fletcher met representatives of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist rebel group which spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad, including its leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa and interim prime minister Mohammad Al-Bashir.
Fletcher said he received “the strongest possible reassurances” from Syria’s new administration that aid workers would have the necessary access on the ground.
“We need unhindered, unfettered access to the people that we’re here to serve. We need the crossings open so we can get massive amounts of aid through... We need to ensure that humanitarian workers can go where they need to go without restriction, with protection,” he said.
“I received the strongest possible reassurances from the top of that caretaker administration that they will give us that support that we need. Let’s test that now in the period ahead.”
Assad’s government had long imposed restrictions on humanitarian organizations and on aid distribution in areas of the country outside its control.
Fletcher said that the coming period would be “a test for the UN, which hasn’t been able to deliver what we wanted to over a decade now... Can we scale up? Can we gain people’s trust?
“But it’s also a test for the new administration,” he added. “Can they guarantee us a more permissive environment than we had under the Assad regime?
“I believe that we can work in that partnership, but it’s a huge test for all of us.”


Turkish FM rejects Trump claim of Ankara ‘takeover’ in Syria

Updated 19 December 2024
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Turkish FM rejects Trump claim of Ankara ‘takeover’ in Syria

ISTANBUL: Turkiye on Wednesday rejected US President-elect Donald Trump’s claim that the rebel ouster of Syrian strongman Bashar Assad was an “unfriendly takeover” by Ankara.
“We wouldn’t call it a takeover, because it would be a grave mistake to present what’s been happening in Syria” in those terms, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told broadcaster Al Jazeera in an interview.
“For Syrian people, it is not a takeover. I think if there is any takeover, it’s the will of the Syrian people which is taking over now.”
Assad fled to Russia after a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) wrested city after city from his control until the rebels reached the Syrian capital earlier this month.
On Monday, Trump said “the people that went in (to Syria) are controlled by Turkiye and that’s ok.”
“Turkiye did an unfriendly takeover, without a lot of lives being lost,” the billionaire businessman told reporters.
Since the early days of the anti-Assad revolt that erupted in 2011, Turkiye has been seen as a key backer of the opposition to his rule.
It has hosted political dissenters as well as millions of refugees and also backed rebel groups fighting the army.
Fidan said it would be incorrect to characterise Turkiye as the power that would rule Syria in the end.
“I think that would be the last thing that we want to see, because we are drawing huge lessons from what’s been happening in our region, because the culture of domination itself has destroyed our region,” he said.
“Therefore, it is not Turkish domination, not Iranian domination, not Arab domination, but cooperation should be essential,” he added.
“Our solidarity with Syrian people shouldn’t be characterised or defined today as if we are actually ruling Syria. I think that would be wrong.”
In the same interview Fidan warned Syria’s new rulers to address the issue of Kurdish forces in the country, whom Ankara brands “terrorists.”
“There is a new administration in Damascus now. I think, this is primarily their concern now,” minister Hakan Fidan said.
“So, I think if they are going to, if they address this issue properly, so there would be no reason for us to intervene.”
Fidan was responding to a question amid growing rumors that Turkiye could launch an offensive on the Kurdish-held border town of Kobani, also known as Ain Al-Arab.
Local witnesses told AFP there has been an increase in the number of soldiers patrolling on the Turkish side of the border but no “unusual military activity.”
Ankara has staged multiple operations against Kurdish forces since 2016, and Turkish-backed groups have captured several Kurdish-held towns in the north in recent weeks.