Houthi leader pledges support for Iran against Israel

The leader of Yemen’s Houthi militia, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi (seen here in a January 2024 address), pledged on Sunday to defend Iran if it was attacked by Israel. (Screenshot/File Photo)
The leader of Yemen’s Houthi militia, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi (seen here in a January 2024 address), pledged on Sunday to defend Iran if it was attacked by Israel. (Screenshot/File Photo)
Short Url
Updated 06 October 2024
Follow

Houthi leader pledges support for Iran against Israel

Houthi leader pledges support for Iran against Israel
  • Yemeni information minister says militia abducted content creator Abdul Rahman Al-Baydani from his home in province of Ibb

AL-MUKALLA: The leader of Yemen’s Houthi militia, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, pledged on Sunday to defend Iran if it was attacked by Israel and to continue firing missiles and drones at Israel in support of the Palestinians and Lebanese. 

Speaking on the eve of the first anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, Al-Houthi vowed to escalate attacks on international ships while continuing to fire missiles and drones at Israel, claiming that his forces had fired 1000 ballistic missiles, drones and drone boats at 193 ships and Israel since the start of their campaign in November.

“On the Yemeni front, we maintain our principled, humanitarian, moral, religious and faithful position in support of the Palestinian people, their mujahideen, our brothers in Lebanon, the Hezbollah mujahideen, the Islamic Republic of Iran, our brothers in Iraq and the nation’s free people,” he said, adding that 774 US and UK strikes on Yemeni areas under the militia’s control had killed 82 people and injured 340 others. He also urged his supporters to demonstrate on Monday in the streets of Sanaa and other Yemeni cities under their control in support of Lebanon, Palestine and Iran. 

Al-Houthi’s speech came two days after the US Central Command launched a series of strikes on “Houthi offensive military capabilities” in Sanaa, Thamar, Hodeidah and Bayda, the latest round of strikes against the Houthis in Yemen for their ship attacks.

Since November, the Houthis have captured a commercial ship and its crew, sunk two more and set fire to several others while firing hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones and drone boats at more than 100 commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. 

The Houthis claim that they only target Israel-linked ships or ships visiting Israeli ports to pressure Israel to end its war in the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

This comes as Yemeni government officials said on Sunday that the Yemeni government’s efforts to evacuate stranded Yemeni nationals from Lebanon have been suspended after an Israeli airstrike hit Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria, cutting off a vital artery for thousands of people fleeing Israel’s devastating air bombardment of Lebanon.

The Yemeni Embassy in Lebanon recently requested that Yemenis living in Lebanon apply for a transit visit from Syria before proceeding to Lebanon’s border crossing with Syria and that it would arrange transportation to transfer them from Lebanon to Syria and then to Jordan before taking Yemenia Airways flights from Amman to Yemeni airports.

Stranded Yemenis in Lebanon rejected the Yemeni embassy’s proposal to evacuate them by land.

They demanded that their government evacuate them by air from Beirut on Yemenia Airways or by sea.

Mushtaq Anaam, a Yemeni national living in Beirut’s Cola, told Arab News on Sunday that the Yemeni government should evacuate them by air, just as the Tunisian government did by sending a flight to evacuate stranded Tunisians and their families, and providing them with lodging. Anaam added that their lives in Lebanon had deteriorated as apartment rentals had risen dramatically in recent days.

“The financial situation of those stranded has deteriorated significantly, with people unable to afford transportation and rent,” he said. 

“Rents have risen by 200 percent, and landlords ask for three months’ rent in advance. Except for Yemen, all countries are nearing the end of their citizens’ evacuations,” Anaam said.

Yemeni media reported that a Yemeni national, Ali A-Hajj, from Yemen’s Ibb province, and his Lebanese mother, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their home in Lebanon’s West Bekaa on Friday.    

Meanwhile, Yemeni Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani said on Saturday that the Houthis abducted a Yemeni content creator and media activist, Abdul Rahman Al-Baydani, from his home in the province of Ibb, due to online criticism of the Houthis, as the Yemeni militia intensifies their crackdown on Yemenis who criticize them or celebrate the 1962 revolution.

“These abductions are just a new episode in the series of systematic violations carried out by the Houthi militia against every free voice in the areas under its control, who exercise their right to report the facts and expose the militia’s oppressive practices,” Al-Eryani said in a post on X.


Returning Syrian refugees cut global displaced total

Returning Syrian refugees cut global displaced total
Updated 9 sec ago
Follow

Returning Syrian refugees cut global displaced total

Returning Syrian refugees cut global displaced total
  • UN believes 1.5m from abroad and 2m internally displaced will be home by the end of 2025

GENEVA: Refugees returning to Syria have cut the global total of displaced people from a record peak at the end of 2024, the UN said on Thursday.

More than 500,000 have returned from abroad and 1.2 million internally displaced people have gone back to their home areas since Bashar Assad was deposed in December. The UN refugee agency estimates 1.5 million from abroad and 2 million internally displaced will return by the end of 2025.
Worldwide, a record 123.2 million were forcibly displaced by last December, but the total had fallen to 122.1 million by the end of April. The main drivers of displacement were conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine.

“We are living in a time of intense volatility ... with modern warfare creating a fragile, harrowing landscape marked by acute human suffering,” UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said. “We must redouble our efforts to search for peace and find long-lasting solutions for refugees and others forced to flee their homes.”


Syria condemns ‘blatant violation’ of sovereignty after Israeli incursion

Syria condemns ‘blatant violation’  of sovereignty after Israeli incursion
Updated 59 min 55 sec ago
Follow

Syria condemns ‘blatant violation’ of sovereignty after Israeli incursion

Syria condemns ‘blatant violation’  of sovereignty after Israeli incursion
  • One person killed and 7 captured during the pre-dawn operation in Beit Jin, Interior Ministry says

DAMASCUS: Syria’s Interior Ministry condemned an Israeli incursion in southern Syria, saying Israeli forces killed one person and abducted seven others, calling it a “blatant violation” of the country’s sovereignty.

“We affirm that these repeated provocations constitute a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that “these practices cannot lead the region to stability and will only result in further tension and turmoil.”
The Israeli military said those detained during the pre-dawn raid on Beit Jin were suspected of planning attacks against Israel, and that weapons also were found in the area. 
They were taken back to Israel for questioning, the military said.
One person was killed and seven captured in the operation, Syria’s Interior Ministry said, while the father of the young man killed said he had a history of mental illness.
Since the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government in early December, Israeli forces have moved into several areas in southern Syria and conducted hundreds of airstrikes throughout the country, destroying much of the assets of the Syrian army.
Local broadcaster Syria TV described Thursday’s raid as being carried out by about 100 Israeli troops who stormed Beit Jin, near the border with Lebanon, and called out the names of several people targeted for arrest through loudspeakers.
Syria’s Interior Ministry said such incursions spike tensions in the region. 
“Such repeated provocative acts are a flagrant violation of Syria’s sovereignty,” the ministry said in a statement.
Village official Walid Okasha said that Israeli troops had entered the outskirts of Beit Jin in recent months, but that this was the first time they entered the center of the village. 
He added that Thursday’s operation came four days after an Israeli drone strike hit a car in the village, inflicting casualties.
“They came targeting specific people,” said Okasha, who denied that Hamas members were in the village.
He said the seven people taken to Israel were all Syrians and that two of them were members of the country’s new security forces. 
He said the man who was killed suffered from mental illness.
Ahmad Hammadi identified the victim as his son and told the AP that he had a history of schizophrenia. 
He said his son was shot dead in front of his home, and that he had no links to Hamas. 
He said two of the captured men were his nephews. Hussein Safadi said his two sons, Ahmad, 32, and Mohammed, 34, were captured, adding that his younger son, who raises goats, had lived in Lebanon for years until recently. 
He said his younger son was a member of the armed opposition against Assad and recently joined the security forces of the new authorities. As for why Israeli forces seized his sons, “we don’t know the reasons,” Safadi said.
During a visit to France last month, Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa said that his country is holding indirect talks with Israel to prevent hostilities from getting out of control.


Egypt blocks activists aiming to march to Gaza to draw attention to humanitarian crisis

Egypt blocks activists aiming to march to Gaza to draw attention to humanitarian crisis
Updated 12 June 2025
Follow

Egypt blocks activists aiming to march to Gaza to draw attention to humanitarian crisis

Egypt blocks activists aiming to march to Gaza to draw attention to humanitarian crisis
  • Egyptian authorities and activists both said Thursday that people planning to march across the Sinai Peninsula were deported

RABAT: Egypt blocked activists planning to take part in a march to Gaza, halting their attempt to reach the border and challenge Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory before it could begin.
Egyptian authorities and activists both said Thursday that people planning to march across the Sinai Peninsula were deported.
To draw attention to the humanitarian crisis afflicting people in Gaza, marchers have for months planned to trek about 30 miles (about 50 kilometers) from the city of Arish to Egypt’s border with the enclave on Sunday to “create international moral and media pressure” to open the crossing at Rafah and lift a blockade that has prevented aid from entering.
Saif Abu Keshek, one of the activists organizing the march, said that about 200 activists — mostly Algerians and Moroccans — were detained or deported.
But those arriving to the Cairo International Airport on Thursday afternoon were allowed into Egypt, the Spain-based activist added. Organizers have not received approval from Egyptian authorities for Sunday’s march and were evaluating how to proceed, he said.
An Egyptian official on Thursday said more than three dozen activists, mostly carrying European passports, were deported upon their arrival at the Cairo International Airport in the past two days.

The official said the activists aimed to travel to Northern Sinai “without obtaining required authorizations.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.


King Tut gold mask to leave Cairo museum after nearly 100 years

King Tut gold mask to leave Cairo museum after nearly 100 years
Updated 58 min 44 sec ago
Follow

King Tut gold mask to leave Cairo museum after nearly 100 years

King Tut gold mask to leave Cairo museum after nearly 100 years
  • King Tutankhamun’s treasures to move to new Grand Egyptian Museum near Giza Pyramids
  • More than 5,000 artefacts from his tomb will be displayed at the $1-billion megaproject opening next month

CAIRO: After nearly a century in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, King Tutankhamun’s iconic gold mask and remaining treasures are set to move to the new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids.
Visitors have just days left to see the boy king’s world-famous gold funerary mask before it joins more than 5,000 artefacts from his tomb at the GEM, a $1-billion megaproject opening on July 3.
“Only 26 objects from the Tutankhamun collection, including the golden mask and two coffins, remain here in Tahrir,” said museum director Ali Abdel Halim.
“All are set to be moved soon,” he told AFP, without confirming a specific date for the transfer.
The government has yet to officially announce when or how the last artefacts will be relocated.
Still on display are the innermost gold coffin, a gilded coffin, a gold dagger, cosmetic box, miniature coffins, royal diadem and pectorals.
Tutankhamun’s treasures, registered at the Egyptian Museum on Cairo’s Tahrir square in 1934, have long been its crown jewels.
But the neoclassical building — with faded cases, no climate control and aging infrastructure — now contrasts with the high-tech GEM.
Once open, the GEM is believed to be the largest in the world devoted to a single civilization, housing more than 100,000 artefacts — with over half on public display.
In a dedicated wing, most of King Tut’s treasures will be exhibited together for the first time in history since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the young pharaoh’s intact tomb in 1922.
His mummy will remain in its original resting place in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings as it is “a vital part of the archaeological site,” Egyptian officials have said.
A virtual replica, however, will be displayed at the GEM using virtual reality technology.
The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, long the historic heart of Egyptology, has lost in 2021 other star exhibits: 22 royal mummies including Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut that were relocated in a widely watched state procession to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Old Cairo.
Still, it is home to around 170,000 artefacts, according to the museum director, including treasures from Yuya and Thuya — Tutankhamun’s ancestors — and items from ancient Tanis, such as the golden funerary mask of King Amenemope.
A total of 32,000 artefacts have already been relocated from storage and display halls at the Tahrir museum to the GEM.
The museum’s director said the space left behind by Tutankhamun’s collection will eventually be filled by a new exhibition “on par with the significance of Tut’s treasures.”


Syria condemns Israeli incursion into Damascus countryside

Syria condemns Israeli incursion into Damascus countryside
Updated 12 June 2025
Follow

Syria condemns Israeli incursion into Damascus countryside

Syria condemns Israeli incursion into Damascus countryside
  • Atrack undermines Syria’s efforts to achieve stability and reconstruction, Foreign Ministry said
  • Israeli forces entered Beit Jinn in Qatana area killing one civilian and detaining others

LONDON: The Syrian Arab Republic condemned an overnight incursion by Israeli forces into its southern territory, resulting in the death of a civilian and the detention of scores of residents.

“(The) escalation represents a clear violation of international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, including the 1974 Disengagement Agreement,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement on Thursday.

It added that the attack undermines Syria’s efforts to achieve stability and reconstruction and called on the UN Security Council “to take decisive steps to halt those repeated attacks and ensure respect for international law, in order to preserve regional security and stability.”

Syria’s Ministry of Interior said on Thursday that the Israeli forces killed one civilian and “kidnapped seven others during a raid in the town of Beit Jinn, (in the) Damascus countryside” overnight.

The Israeli forces, comprised of tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry vehicles, along with reconnaissance drones, entered Beit Jinn in the Qatana area in the country’s southern territory, 12 km from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

“These practices cannot lead to stability in the region and will only lead to further tension and unrest,” the Ministry of Interior said.

Israeli forces took the detained Syrians into the territories it controlled following the fall of the Assad regime in December, and their fate remains “unknown,” the ministry added.