Yemeni government boycotts talks with Houthis over denial of access to detained politician

Yemeni government boycotts talks with Houthis over denial of access to detained politician
Yemenis greet their freed relatives during a prisoner exchange, Taiz, Yemen, Sept. 29, 2021. (AFP/File)
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Updated 06 June 2023
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Yemeni government boycotts talks with Houthis over denial of access to detained politician

Yemeni government boycotts talks with Houthis over denial of access to detained politician
  • Negotiators said they will not take part in any further prisoner-swap discussions until the militia allows the family of Mohammed Qahtan to see him
  • The Yemeni politician was forcibly disappeared 8 years ago by the Houthis, who have ignored demands from his family and the international community for his release

AL-MUKALLA: Yemeni government negotiators said they will boycott any further UN-mediated negotiations with the Houthis over prisoner exchanges until the militia reveals the whereabouts of detained politician Mohammed Qahtan and allows his family and government officials to visit him.
In a message posted on Twitter, Hadi Haig, head of the government delegation involved in the talks, said: “Our position is clear: We will not participate until this visit takes place. We hope that the (UN) envoy’s office will exert pressure in this regard to advance this file.”
Qahtan, a prominent Yemeni politician, was forcibly disappeared eight years ago by the Houthis, who have ignored repeated demands by the UN Security Council, local and international rights groups, and the politician’s family for his release.
The reluctance of the Houthis to allow relatives to visit him, or disclose his whereabouts, have fueled concerns that he might have died in custody.
During a first round of prisoner-swap negotiations in March, the Yemeni government and the Houthis agreed to exchange more than 900 prisoners and grant each other access to prisons in Marib and Sanaa. The two sides were due to reconvene after those visits for a second round of negotiations in the hope of negotiating the release of a larger number of prisoners.
However, members of a government delegation that was due to visit Houthi jails said they were denied permission to see Qahtan. As a result, they canceled their visit and suspended their participation in talks with the militia.
Meanwhile, the Houthis said government “preconditions” had delayed their own delegation’s visit to a government-run prison in the central city of Marib.
The government delegation’s suspension of talks with the Houthis comes as Hans Grundberg, the UN’s special envoy for Yemen, continues to travel between regional capitals in an effort to engage those involved in the conflict in talks to extend the UN-brokered truce and, ultimately, strike a peace deal.
Grundberg’s office said he arrived in Muscat on Monday where he met Omani officials and Houthi senior negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam to “explore ways to advance the progress of ongoing peace efforts.”
The envoy previously visited Riyadh where he met, with the same aim, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Al-Jaber; the ambassadors to Yemen of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the US, the UK, France, Russia and China); Rashad Al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council; and other leading Yemeni officials.
In an interview with China Global Television Network last week, Grundberg said a lasting cease-fire in Yemen “is conceivable in the near future” but will require a great deal of effort, concessions from the warring factions, and international support.
“I do believe that that is possible but I would not want to say that it is going to be easy,” he added. “It still requires compromises to be made from the parties in order to reach that level of agreement.
“We’re in a position right now where there are ongoing discussions taking place on different levels in support of the UN mediation efforts.”


Lebanon complains to Security Council about Israel’s targeting of Lebanese army

Lebanon complains to Security Council about Israel’s targeting of Lebanese army
Updated 52 min 10 sec ago
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Lebanon complains to Security Council about Israel’s targeting of Lebanese army

Lebanon complains to Security Council about Israel’s targeting of Lebanese army
  • French foreign ministry calls on ‘all parties to exercise maximum restraint to prevent the outbreak of regional conflict’
  • FM Abdallah Bou Habib said that he ‘instructed the Lebanese mission to the UN to submit a complaint against Israel in response to the targeting of the Lebanese army’

BEIRUT: Israeli bombing of a residential building in the Lebanese border town of Mays Al-Jabal has killed one person and injured two others.

Following a night of violence, the public square in Mays Al-Jabal resembled a war zone. The town and its surroundings were relentlessly bombarded for hours, extending well into the night. The vicinity of Mays Al-Jabal Hospital experienced intense artillery shelling. The Israeli army used artillery and internationally prohibited phosphorus shells.

From Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning, Hezbollah launched 14 military operations against Israeli military sites. The actions were in response to an Israeli airstrike that resulted in the death of a Lebanese army soldier and the injury of three others at an army center in the Al-Adisa border area.

The French foreign ministry expressed its regret on Wednesday over the Israeli strike that claimed the life of a Lebanese soldier. It stressed “the need for all parties to exercise maximum restraint to prevent the outbreak of a regional conflict.”

Lebanese caretaker foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said that he “instructed the Lebanese mission to the United Nations to submit a new complaint to the Security Council against Israel in response to Israel’s targeting of the Lebanese army, which caused the martyrdom of a soldier and the injury of others.”

In the complaint, Bou Habib stated that “Israel is actively violating Lebanon’s sovereignty and attacking it on land, sea and air while refraining from implementing international resolutions, especially Resolution 425.”

UNIFIL forces warned of “the rapid increase in violence on the Lebanese-Israeli border, which could lead to serious consequences for people on both sides of the Blue Border Line.”

After Israel targeted a Lebanese army post, UNIFIL said in a statement: “This is the first time that a Lebanese soldier has been killed during this critical period. The Lebanese army did not engage in the conflict with Israel.”

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee claimed that “a threat was detected from inside a Hezbollah reconnaissance complex and the firing of shells near the Nabi Aweida-Al-Adisa area on the Lebanese border.” He added that “members of the Lebanese army were not the targets of the Israeli raid.”

Adraee expressed “the Israeli army’s regret for the incident,” and claimed that the army was “investigating the circumstances.”

Hostilities between the Israeli army and Hezbollah continued at a low level but remained confined to a geographical border area. According to Israeli Channel 12, the missile fire that was launched from Lebanon hit “an Israeli army position in Mount Hermon.”

In the morning, the Israeli army attacked a house in the town of Aita Al-Shaab. Three shells were fired from a Merkava tank from the Pranit barracks. No casualties reported. The same house had been bombed previously.

The Israeli artillery targeted the outskirts of Yaroun and Maroun Al-Ras, as well as the towns of Khiam, Fardis, Rashaya Al-Fukhar, Helta Farm, the outskirts of Kfar Shuba, and Al-Salamia Farm on the outskirts of Al-Mari village in Hasbaya District. The areas surrounding the towns of Tayr Harfa and Shehine were also subjected to artillery shelling.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that “military drones bombed the headquarters of Hezbollah’s operations command and infrastructure.”

Hezbollah announced that it had targeted “an Israeli radar site and investigated direct hits.” ‏

Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai is scheduled to visit Christian towns in the border region on Thursday.

During their monthly meeting on Wednesday, the Maronite bishops expressed their “deep sadness regarding the ongoing war in Gaza, with its terrible tragedies and horrific calamities.”

The bishops denounced “opening new fronts in southern Lebanon by any Palestinian faction because it is a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty as an independent state.”

They affirmed their adherence to the principle that “the decision on war and peace must be in the hands of the Lebanese state alone because of its repercussions on the entire Lebanese people.”


Egypt condemns Israel’s decision to build new settlement in East Jerusalem

Egypt condemns Israel’s decision to build new settlement in East Jerusalem
Updated 06 December 2023
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Egypt condemns Israel’s decision to build new settlement in East Jerusalem

Egypt condemns Israel’s decision to build new settlement in East Jerusalem
  • First settlement plan to be fully approved by the Israeli government since 2012
  • About 700,000 Israeli settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank

CAIRO: Egypt has condemned Israel’s decision to build a new settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.

According to left-wing Israeli organization Ir Amim, which monitors the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Jerusalem, it is the first settlement plan to be fully approved by the Israeli government since 2012.

In a statement, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry called the move “a new blatant violation of international decisions and the UN Security Council resolutions regarding the illegitimacy of Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

The ministry stressed Egypt’s categorical rejection of the Israeli settlement policies in the entire occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, and its repeated attempts to undermine the existing legal, historical, and demographic context in an effort to separate parts of the land from its Palestinian surroundings.

It demanded that Israel halt its illegal settlement activities.

The statement reiterated Egypt’s call to influential international parties, including the UN and its relevant bodies, to shoulder their responsibilities in protecting the rights of the Palestinian people and to halt unilateral Israeli settlement operations that undermine the foundations of peace.

The statement stressed the need for Israel to stop exploiting the world’s preoccupation with the war it is waging against the Palestinian people in Gaza to intensify its illegal practices in the West Bank, including settlement activities.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.

About 700,000 Israeli settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank, adjacent to East Jerusalem.


CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman loses nine relatives in Israeli strike on Gaza

CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman loses nine relatives in Israeli strike on Gaza
Updated 06 December 2023
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CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman loses nine relatives in Israeli strike on Gaza

CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman loses nine relatives in Israeli strike on Gaza
  • Israel resumed combat operations after a seven-day temporary truce with Hamas
  • Dahman’s childhood home in Gaza City has been destroyed in the Israeli offensive

DUBAI: CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman lost nine relatives in an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza, CNN reported.

Dahman had escaped to Egypt with his family, but on Sunday heard news that at least nine family members were killed when the building they were living in Beit Lahia took a direct hit by an Israeli strike.

His uncle, and the uncle’s wife, daughter and two grandchildren, as well as his aunt, her husband and two children perished, while at least two other relatives are in critical condition and others are still buried under the rubble.

Dahman’s childhood home in Gaza City was also destroyed in a separate strike on an adjacent building the same day, CNN reported.

“I will never be able to forget every stone and corner of the house in which I was born and raised and in which my children were born,” Dahman said in the CNN report.

“They were extremely peaceful and simple people, and their entire lives were devoted solely to work and raising their sons and daughters. They have no affiliation with any organization or group… Pray to God to have mercy on them all.”

Dahman’s brother had earlier called to tell him that his home in Gaza City, where he was born and grew up, has been reduced to ruins by the Israeli bombardment.

He had just finished renovating the apartment months before the Hamas attack, and told CNN he had fond memories living there, including celebrating his sons’ birthdays with cake and candles surrounded by family.

“Unfortunately, I left all my memories, my belongings, and the gifts that my bosses sent me at work in this house, all of which were lost under the rubble now.”

Israel’s military resumed combat operations against Hamas in Gaza last week after accusing Hamas of violating a seven-day temporary truce by firing toward Israeli territory.

The seven-day pause, which began on Nov. 24 and was extended twice, had allowed for the exchange of dozens of hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the shattered coastal strip.

Israel has sworn to annihilate the Palestinian militant group, which rules Gaza, in response to the Oct. 7 rampage when Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.


Russia’s Putin meets with UAE president in Abu Dhabi during Middle East visit

Russia’s Putin meets with UAE president in Abu Dhabi during Middle East visit
Updated 06 December 2023
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Russia’s Putin meets with UAE president in Abu Dhabi during Middle East visit

Russia’s Putin meets with UAE president in Abu Dhabi during Middle East visit
  • UAE President welcomes Russian leader at official reception held at Qasr Al-Watan

ABU DHABI: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday landed in the UAE for a rare visit outside the former Soviet Union, UAE state media reported, as Moscow seeks to reassert itself on the global stage.

“Putin’s plane has landed in Abu Dhabi,” the state-run RIA Novosti also reported on social media, while Russian state television showed Putin being greeted by officials on the runway.

The Russian president’s plane was accompanied by a number of military aircraft to greet Putin upon entering the UAE airspace.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed greeted Putin at an official reception held at Qasr Al-Watan. The Russian leader’s convoy was accompanied by a group of honor guards mounted on Arabian horses.

Sheikh Mohamed welcomed his “dear friend” and UAE jets greeted the Kremlin chief with a fly-past trailing the colours of Russia's flag.

The two countries’ national anthems were played and a 21-gun salute fired as part of a welcoming ceremony, WAM reported.

An Emirati air display then followed, painting the sky in the colors of the Russian flag.


Iran says it sent a capsule with animals into orbit as it prepares for human missions

Iran says it sent a capsule with animals into orbit as it prepares for human missions
Updated 06 December 2023
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Iran says it sent a capsule with animals into orbit as it prepares for human missions

Iran says it sent a capsule with animals into orbit as it prepares for human missions
TEHRAN, Iran: Iran said Wednesday it sent a capsule into orbit carrying animals as it prepares for human missions in coming years.
A report by the official IRNA news agency quoted Telecommunications Minister Isa Zarepour as saying the capsule was launched 130 kilometers (80 miles) into orbit.
Zarepour said the launch of the 500-kilogram (1,000-pound) capsule is aimed at sending Iranian astronauts to space in coming years. He did not say what kind of animals were in the capsule.
State TV showed footage of a rocket named Salman carrying the capsule into space.
Iran occasionally announces successful launches of satellites and other space crafts. In September, Iran said it sent a data-collecting satellite into space. In 2013, Iran said it sent a monkey into space and returned it successfully.
It says its satellite program is for scientific research and other civilian applications. The US and other Western countries have long been suspicious of the program because the same technology can be used to develop long-range missiles.