You are here

  • Home
  • Houthis refuse to trade four abducted journalists with Yemen’s government

Houthis refuse to trade four abducted journalists with Yemen’s government

Special Houthis refuse to trade four abducted journalists with Yemen’s government
The four Yemeni journalists that are being held by the Houthis. (Twitter Photo)
Short Url

https://arab.news/g4pdj

Updated 13 March 2023
Saeed Al-Batati

Houthis refuse to trade four abducted journalists with Yemen’s government

Houthis refuse to trade four abducted journalists with Yemen’s government
  • Journalists, kidnapped by Houthis from a hotel in Sanaa in 2015, face death penalty
  • Abdullah Al-Mansouri: The journalists’ file should not be open to such blackmail and haggling, and they should be freed right away
Updated 13 March 2023
Saeed Al-Batati

AL-MUKALLA: During prisoner exchange talks in Switzerland, Iran-backed Houthi delegates refused to consider the release of four journalists in their captivity who face the death penalty and refused to include their names in the expected swap deal with the government, two Yemeni officials told Arab News on Monday. 

Relatives of the journalists have asked Yemeni government negotiators to continue to press for their release.  

The Yemeni government and the Houthis started discussing prisoner exchanges on Saturday and are scheduled to continue for 11 days.

Over the two last days, the two parties exchanged the names of hundreds of captives, forcibly disappeared individuals, and others, including politicians, fighters, and military leaders. During the discussions, the Houthis rebuffed the Yemeni government’s proposal to include the four journalists in the upcoming prisoner swap.

Muammar Al-Eryani, Yemen’s minister of information, condemned the Houthis’ resistance to pleas for the release of the journalists, who are being subjected to physical and psychological torture, and called for further pressure on the Houthis to free them.

Majed Fadail, Yemen’s deputy human rights minister and government delegation member, said there have been no advances in discussions regarding a prisoner exchange. 

Tawfiq Al-Mansouri, Akram Al-Walidy, Abdul Khaleq Omaran, and Harith Hamid were among nine journalists kidnapped by the Houthis from a hotel in Sanaa in 2015. In October 2020, the Houthis freed five journalists in what was the last major prisoner exchange.

The remaining four were taken on trial by the Houthis, who then condemned them to death for spying, torturing them, denying them access to medicine, and preventing them from getting in touch with their relatives.

Nabil Al-Osaidi, a prominent member of the Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate, told Arab News: “The Houthis refuse to consider the subject of journalists in any exchange of detainees in order to use them as leverage to get the release of top Houthi officials.”

Families of the four journalists demanded that the Yemeni government, the UN Yemen Envoy Hans Grundberg, who is sponsoring the talks, and rights groups exert pressure on the Houthis until their release is confirmed.

“The journalists’ file should not be open to such blackmail and haggling, and they should be freed right away,” Abdullah Al-Mansouri, brother of abducted journalist Tawfiq Al-Mansouri, told Arab News. 

Abdullah expressed hope that the discussions would result in the freedom of his brother and the other journalists. “We’re waiting and hoping they’ll be released. We’re waiting for them, counting down the minutes and seconds till my brother Tawfiq and his colleagues arrive.”

Separately, the Houthis have frozen Yemenia Airlines’ accounts in banks under their control, accusing the firm of neglecting to run additional flights from Sanaa to Cairo and Mumbai. 

Yemen’s information minister warned that Houthi actions against the company will result in the suspension of employee salaries, other operational activities, and flights from Sanaa airport.

“These actions reflect the Houthi terrorist militia’s intent on maintaining the escalation strategy and rejecting any moves to alleviate the crisis and humanitarian situation,” the Yemeni minister said on Twitter.

Topics: Yemen Hans Grundberg Muammar Al-Eryani

Related

Special Houthis slammed for torturing abducted journalists
Media
Houthis slammed for torturing abducted journalists
Houthis torturing four abducted journalists, say families
Media
Houthis torturing four abducted journalists, say families

UAE’s mandatory midday work break starts June 15

UAE’s mandatory midday work break starts June 15
Updated 22 sec ago
Arab News

UAE’s mandatory midday work break starts June 15

UAE’s mandatory midday work break starts June 15
  • Working in open spaces and under direct sunlight is not allowed from 12:30 p.m. until 3:00 p.m.
  • Companies are also required to provide shaded areas where workers can rest during the midday break
Updated 22 sec ago
Arab News

DUBAI: The UAE’s mandatory midday break for all outdoor workers will start on June 15, the 19th consecutive year the ban has been enforced to protect employees from the intense summer heat.

Working in open spaces and under direct sunlight is not allowed from 12:30 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. until Sept 15 this year, with daily working hours in both morning and evening shifts restricted to eight hours.

Any employee made to work more than eight hours in a 24-hour period will be considered to have worked overtime and must be compensated for it.

Companies are also required to provide shaded areas where workers can rest during the midday break.

Employers found flouting the regulations will be fined approximately $1,360 for each worker they require to work during required midday break, with a maximum of $13,614 penalty in case multiple workers are involved.

The implementation of the midday break is in line with Ministerial Resolution No. (44) of 2022 on Occupational Health and Safety and Labor Accommodation, which aims to provide adequate working environments that protect workers from occupational hazards and prevents work-related injuries or illnesses, a report from state news agency WAM said.

“We are confident that employers across the country will comply with the provisions of the ban. Over the past years, we have seen impressive compliance rates, which confirms the level of awareness in the market about the importance of this decision and its effective role in protecting workers from the hazards of direct exposure to sunlight or working in open spaces around naloon,” according to Mohsen Al-Nassi, assistant undersecretary for inspection affairs at the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.

There are however exemptions to the midday break, particularly jobs that “require work to continue uninterrupted and they are exempted from implementing the midday work ban for technical reasons,” WAM reported.

These include laying asphalt or pouring concrete – when it is impractical to postpone these tasks – as well as works needed to contain hazards or repair damage that affects the community, such as interruptions to water supply or electricity, cutting off traffic, and other major issues.

“The exemptions also include works that require a permit from a relevant government authority to be implemented, given their impact on the flow of traffic and services. These tasks require non-stop work, including cutting or diverting main traffic routes, power lines, and communications,” WAM said.

Employers are also required to provide sufficient cold drinking water for workers exempted from the midday ban, as well as provide hydrating food, such as salts and/or other food items approved for use by the local authorities.

Topics: labor UAE

Related

UAE announces midday break for laborers during summer months 
Middle-East
UAE announces midday break for laborers during summer months 

Restoration lags for Syria’s famed Roman ruins at Palmyra and other war-battered historic sites

Restoration lags for Syria’s famed Roman ruins at Palmyra and other war-battered historic sites
Updated 24 min 11 sec ago
AP

Restoration lags for Syria’s famed Roman ruins at Palmyra and other war-battered historic sites

Restoration lags for Syria’s famed Roman ruins at Palmyra and other war-battered historic sites
  • Many sites were damaged by the war and more recently by the deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck a wide area of neighboring Turkiye and also Syria in February.
  • Before the war, Palmyra — one of Syria’s six UNESCO world heritage sites — was the country’s archaeological crown jewel, a tourist attraction that drew tens of thousands of visitors each year
Updated 24 min 11 sec ago
AP

PALMYRA: At the height of the Daesh group’s rampage across Syria, the world watched in horror as the militants blew up an iconic arch and temple in the country’s famed Roman ruins in Palmyra.
Eight years later, Daesh has lost its hold but restoration work on the site has been held up by security issues, leftover IS land mines and lack of funding.
Other archaeological sites throughout Syria face similar problems, both in areas held by the government and by the opposition. They were damaged by the war or, more recently, by the deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck a wide area of neighboring Turkiye and also Syria in February.
Youssef Kanjou, a former director of Syria’s Aleppo National Museum, said the situation of heritage sites in his country is a “disaster.”


Without a coordinated preservation and restoration effort, said Kanjou, now a researcher at Tübingen University in Germany, “We will lose what was not destroyed by the war or the earthquake.”
Before the war, Palmyra — one of Syria’s six UNESCO world heritage sites — was the country’s archaeological crown jewel, a tourist attraction that drew tens of thousands of visitors each year. The ancient city was the capital of an Arab client state of the Roman Empire that briefly rebelled and carved out its own kingdom in the third century, led by Queen Zenobia.
In more recent times, the area had darker associations. It was home to the Tadmur prison, where thousands of opponents of the Assad family’s rule in Syria were reportedly tortured. IS demolished the prison after capturing the town.
The militants later destroyed Palmyra’s historic temples of Bel and Baalshamin and the Arch of Triumph, viewing them as monuments to idolatry, and beheaded an elderly antiquities scholar who had dedicated his life to overseeing the ruins.
Today, the road through the desert from Homs to Palmyra is dotted with Syrian army checkpoints. In the town adjacent to the ancient site, some shops have reopened, but signs of war remain in the form of charred vehicles and burned-out or boarded-up stores and houses.
The Palmyra Museum is closed, and the much-loved lion statue that used to stand in front of it has been moved to Damascus for restoration and safekeeping.
Nevertheless, Syrian and foreign tourists have begun to trickle back.


“We thought it was impossible that foreigners would return to Palmyra,” said Qais Fathallah, who used to run a hotel there but fled to Homs when IS took over. Now he is back in Palmyra, operating a restaurant, where he said he serves tourists regularly.
On a recent day, a group of tourists from countries including the United Kingdom, Canada and China, and another, with Syrian university students, were wandering through the ruins.
Some of the Syrian tourists had visited in better days. For communication engineering student Fares Mardini, it was the first time.
“Now I’ve finally come, and I see so much destruction. It’s something really upsetting,” he said. “I hope it can be restored and return to what it was.”
In 2019, international experts convened by UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural agency, said detailed studies would need to be done before starting major restorations.
Youmna Tabet, program specialist at the Arab states unit of UNESCO’s World Heritage Center, said restoration work often involves difficult choices, particularly if there isn’t enough original material for rebuilding.
“Is it worth it to rebuild it with very little authenticity or should we rather focus on having 3D documentation of how it was?” she said.
Missions to the site were held up at first by security issues, including land mines that had to be cleared. IS cells still occasionally carry out attacks in the area.
Money is also a problem.
“There is a big lack of funding so far, for all the sites in Syria,” Tabet said, noting that international donors have been wary of breaching sanctions on Syria, which have been imposed by the United States, the European Union and others.
US sanctions exempt activities related to preservation and protection of cultural heritage sites, but sanctions-related obstacles remain, such as a ban on exporting US-made items to Syria.
Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, has begun restoring Palmyra’s triumphal arch, the largest-scale project underway to date at the site.


“We have some funding from some friends in some places, but it is not sufficient in relation to the disaster that occurred,” said Mohammad Nazir Awad, director general of Syria’s department of Antiquities and Museums.
It doesn’t have to be this way, said Maamoun Abdulkarim, who headed the antiquities department at the time of the IS incursion. Abdulkarim pointed to the international push to recover damaged heritage sites in the city of Mosul in neighboring Iraq, also controlled by the militants for some time, as an example of a successful restoration.
“We need to make some separation between political affairs and cultural heritage affairs,” said Abdulkarim, now a professor at the University of Sharjah. He warned that damaged structures are in danger of deteriorating further or collapsing as the rehabilitation work is delayed.
The deadly Feb. 6 earthquake caused further destruction at some sites already damaged by the war. This includes the old city of Aleppo, which is under the control of the government, and the Byzantine-era church of Saint Simeon in the Aleppo countryside, in an area controlled by Turkish-backed opposition forces.
About one-fifth of the church was damaged in the earthquake, including the basilica arch, said Hassan Al-Ismail, a researcher with Syrians for Heritage a non-governmental organization. He said the earthquake compounded earlier damage caused by bombings and vandalism.
The group tried to stabilize the structure with wooden and metal supports and to preserve the stones that fell from it for later use in restoration.
Ayman Al-Nabo, head of antiquities in the opposition-held city of Idlib, appealed for international assistance in stabilizing and restoring sites damaged by the earthquake.
Antiquities should be seen as “neutral to the political reality,” he said. “This is global human heritage, which belongs to the whole world, not just the Syrians.”

Topics: Syria

Related

Australian child pleads with PM to be rescued from Syrian camp
World
Australian child pleads with PM to be rescued from Syrian camp
Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet of a Syrian refugee, will travel the US
Offbeat
Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet of a Syrian refugee, will travel the US

Palestinian toddler critically wounded in West Bank, Israeli military says shooting unintentional

Palestinian toddler critically wounded in West Bank, Israeli military says shooting unintentional
Updated 02 June 2023
AP

Palestinian toddler critically wounded in West Bank, Israeli military says shooting unintentional

Palestinian toddler critically wounded in West Bank, Israeli military says shooting unintentional
  • Latest bloodshed in a more than yearlong surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem
  • Fighting has picked up since Israel’s new far-right government took office in late December
Updated 02 June 2023
AP

JERUSALEM: A 3-year-old Palestinian boy was in a critical condition at an Israeli hospital Friday morning after being shot by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank. The army opened an investigation into what it said was an unintentional shooting.
In a statement, the military said that gunmen opened fire late Thursday toward the West Bank settlement of Nevez Tzuf. It said soldiers at a guard post returned fire.
Moments later, Israeli medics received reports that a Palestinian man and the child had been badly wounded. The man was rushed to a Palestinian hospital, while the baby, after being resuscitated by Israeli medics, was airlifted to Israel’s Sheba Hospital. The hospital said the boy was in critical condition.
The military released a grainy video showing what it said were the gunmen firing toward the settlement and said that it was searching for them.
But it said the incident was being reviewed, saying “it regrets harm to noncombatants” and that it does “everything in its power to prevent such incidents.”
The shooting was the latest bloodshed in a more than yearlong surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. That fighting has picked up since Israel’s new far-right government took office in late December.
Nearly 120 Palestinians have been killed in the two areas this year, with nearly half of them members of armed militant groups, according to an Associated Press tally. The military says the number of militants is much higher. But stone-throwing youths and people uninvolved in violence have also been killed.
Meanwhile, Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis in those areas have killed at least 21 people.
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem, along with the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians seek these territories for a future state.
Some 700,000 Israelis now live in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Most of the international community considers these settlements illegal or obstacles to peace.

Topics: Israel Palestine West Bank

Related

Palestinian gunmen killed Israeli civilian in West Bank, army says
Middle-East
Palestinian gunmen killed Israeli civilian in West Bank, army says
Jewish settlers erect religious school in evacuated West Bank outpost after Israel repeals ban
Middle-East
Jewish settlers erect religious school in evacuated West Bank outpost after Israel repeals ban

US sanctions Iranian operatives accused of overseas plots

US sanctions Iranian operatives accused of overseas plots
Updated 01 June 2023
Reuters

US sanctions Iranian operatives accused of overseas plots

US sanctions Iranian operatives accused of overseas plots
Updated 01 June 2023
Reuters

WASHINGTON: The US has imposed sanctions on members and affiliates of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard and its external operations arm whom Washington accused of participating in terrorist plots targeting former US government officials, dual US and Iranian nationals and Iranian dissidents.

The US Treasury Department said the move targeted three Iran- and Turkiye-based individuals and a company affiliated with the IRGC-Quds Force and two senior officials of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization involved in plotting external lethal operations against civilians, including journalists.

In a statement, the Treasury said the five included Mohammed Reza Ansari, a Quds Force member whom it said has supported its operations in Syria, and Iranian citizen Shahram Poursafi, whom it said had planned and attempted to assassinate two former US government officials.

It also put sanctions on Hossein Hafez Amini, a dual Iranian and Turkish national based in Turkiye, whom it accused of using his Turkish-based airline, Rey Havacilik Ithalat Ihracat Sanayi Ve, to assist the Quds Force’s covert operations, including kidnapping and assassination plots targeting Iranian dissidents.

The airline was also placed under sanctions. The Treasury Department also said it had imposed penalties on two people linked to the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization, which it described as a domestic and international unit focused on targeting journalists, activists, dual Iranian nationals, and others who oppose Iranian abuses and human rights violations.

It named these as Rouhallah Bazghandi, the former chief of the Intelligence Organization’s counterespionage department, and the Intelligence Organization’s chief, Reza Seraj.

As a result of the Treasury sanctions, all property of the five individuals and the company subject to US jurisdiction are blocked. In addition, carrying out some transactions with them can expose actors to “secondary sanctions” under which the US can penalize non-US individuals and entities.    

Topics: US Iran

Related

Tunisia’s financial crisis leaves the sick struggling to find medicine

Tunisia’s financial crisis leaves the sick struggling to find medicine
Updated 01 June 2023
Reuters

Tunisia’s financial crisis leaves the sick struggling to find medicine

Tunisia’s financial crisis leaves the sick struggling to find medicine
  • Hundreds of medicines have been missing for months, pharmacies say, including important treatments for heart disease, cancer and diabetes
  • "The issue of missing medicine has become very hard for patients," said Douha Maaoui Faourati, a Tunis doctor
Updated 01 June 2023
Reuters

TUNIS: Sick Tunisians face a frantic struggle to find some medicines because the cash-strapped state has reduced imports, leaving doctors unable to control debilitating health problems and patients turning to informal markets for their medication.
Hundreds of medicines have been missing for months, pharmacies say, including important treatments for heart disease, cancer and diabetes as well as more basic products such as medicated eye drops whose absence worsens chronic conditions.
“The issue of missing medicine has become very hard for patients. We have a real problem with some medicines for which there are no generics available,” said Douha Maaoui Faourati, a Tunis doctor specializing in kidney and blood pressure disease.
Faourati has had to ask patients to try to get drugs from Europe, including ones used to control dangerously irregular heartbeat, swelling and clotting, and for which she says no good alternative is available in Tunisia.
Her difficulties show how Tunisia’s worsening fiscal problems are hitting ordinary people and adding to public anger at a state barely able to maintain even basic services.
Since last year Tunisia has struggled to pay for other goods that are sold at subsidised rates, causing periodic shortages of bread, dairy products and cooking oil as foreign currency reserves dropped from 130 days of imports to 93 days.
Tunisia wants a $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund bailout, without which ratings agencies have warned it may default on sovereign debt, but President Kais Saied has rejected key terms of the deal and donors say talks have stalled.
Tunisia imports all medicine through the state-owned Central Pharmacy, which provides drugs to hospitals and pharmacies around the country which offer them to patients at a subsidised rate.
The head of Tunisia’s Syndicate of Pharmacies, Naoufel Amira, said hundreds of medicines are no longer available, including for diabetes, anaesthesia and cancer treatment.
Amira and two officials at the Central Pharmacy who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to talk to media, said the body owed large sums to foreign suppliers, which had restricted their sales to Tunisia in response.
“The problem is primarily financial,” Amira said.
Amira said the Central Pharmacy owed about 1 billion dinars ($325 million) to suppliers. The officials there said it owed about 800 million dinars, adding that public insurance companies and hospitals were delaying paying their bills by up to a year.
Tunisia’s Health Ministry and Central Pharmacy did not respond to requests for comment.

MEDICINE EXCHANGE
From the roof of his Tunis house, retired soldier Nabil Boukhili has opened an unofficial medicine exchange for his neighborhood in coordination with local doctors. “We have dozens of people coming here daily to get medication,” he said.
He sources medicine from people traveling overseas as well as leftover pills from people who have finished their own treatment, dispensing it free of charge to people who can show a prescription.
While Reuters was interviewing Boukhili, a woman arrived needing medicine for a thyroid problem. “I’ve been without this medicine for over a week,” said Najia Guadri, adding that she felt unable to function without it.
Sitting at his parents’ home in Tunis, Abdessalem Maraouni described how a lack of medicated eye drops has left him at risk of blindness and unable to go outside, forcing him to abandon his law studies at the university.
“This country can no longer provide even a box of medicine,” he lamented, sitting in the modest family home decorated with posters of his favorite football club but unable to see objects more than a few meters away.
The 25 year-old has not been able to find the medicine, or an alternative, for six months and has had to seek supplies from people traveling abroad, paying far more than he would from Tunisian pharmacies and rationing his use.
Maraouni’s father Kamal wept as he described how the state’s inability to import medicines had hit his son’s prospects.
“We don’t ask the state for money or grand places to live. We only ask for medicine. Is that too much?” he said.

Topics: Tunis International Monetary Fund (IMF) medicine Pharmacies

Related

Planet-friendly farming takes root in drought-hit Tunisia
Middle-East
Planet-friendly farming takes root in drought-hit Tunisia
Tunisia says major migrant trafficker arrested
Middle-East
Tunisia says major migrant trafficker arrested

Latest updates

Tropical Storm Mawar intensifies rains for Japan, threatens floods and mudslides in south and west
Tropical Storm Mawar intensifies rains for Japan, threatens floods and mudslides in south and west
UAE’s mandatory midday work break starts June 15
UAE’s mandatory midday work break starts June 15
Restoration lags for Syria’s famed Roman ruins at Palmyra and other war-battered historic sites
Restoration lags for Syria’s famed Roman ruins at Palmyra and other war-battered historic sites
Two villages in Russia’s Bryansk region shelled from Ukraine
Two villages in Russia’s Bryansk region shelled from Ukraine
UN warns of new threat to global food security after Russia limits Ukraine grain shipments
UN warns of new threat to global food security after Russia limits Ukraine grain shipments

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2023 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.