UN Security Council calls on countries to stop arming Houthis as Red Sea attacks continue

UN Security Council calls on countries to stop arming Houthis as Red Sea attacks continue
A general view shows a Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 16 January 2025
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UN Security Council calls on countries to stop arming Houthis as Red Sea attacks continue

UN Security Council calls on countries to stop arming Houthis as Red Sea attacks continue
  • Resolution drafted by Greece and US calls for root causes of the attacks to be addressed, including ‘conflicts contributing to regional tensions’
  • Russia abstains from vote, describes draft resolution as ‘highly unbalanced and politicized’ because it fails to denounce attacks on Yemeni sovereignty by US, UK and Israel

NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Wednesday adopted a resolution that extends by six months the requirement for the secretary-general to provide monthly reports on attacks by the Houthis in Yemen against ships in the Red Sea.

The reporting obligation was established by the adoption of Resolution 2722 in January 2024, which was introduced in response to the repeated attacks on commercial shipping. The Iran-backed Houthis vowed to continue targeting vessels until Israel ended its war in Gaza.

The attacks prompted retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen by the US, UK and Israel. Meanwhile, the EU launched Operation Aspides, a defensive mission based in Greece that aims to safeguard and escort vessels in the Red Sea but does not participate in any offensive action.

The text of the extension resolution was drafted by Greece and the US, the co-penholders on the issue of the Red Sea crisis. Twelve members of the Security Council voted in favor, while Algeria, China and Russia abstained.

A source at the Russian mission in New York told Arab News that although the safety of maritime navigation is of the utmost importance to Moscow, it considered the language of Resolution 2763 to be “highly politicized and unbalanced” because it failed to mention “the attacks on the sovereignty of Yemen” in the form of airstrikes by the US, UK and Israel.

The text of the resolution, which was seen by Arab News, demands that the Houthis immediately cease all attacks against merchant and commercial vessels and release the cargo ship Galaxy Leader and its crew. The Houthis hijacked the vessel in November 2023 and 25 crew members remain detained by the group.

The new resolution also emphasizes the need “to address the root causes of these attacks, including the conflicts contributing to regional tensions and the disruption of maritime security.”

It notes the use of advanced weaponry by the Houthis and demands that UN member states stop supplying the group with arms.

Greece’s permanent representative to the UN, Evangelos Sekeris, told fellow council members that the “Houthis’ constant attacks against vessels are still disrupting international commercial shipping. Maritime security conditions remain degraded and are expected to further deteriorate, while rerouting of shipping companies continues in favor of safer but costlier alternative maritime routes.”

Sekeris lamented that fact that “we are still witnessing the Houthis’ ongoing aggressiveness and escalatory actions through launching unjustified attacks, with the systematic use of advanced weaponry such as anti-ballistic missiles and drones, even against civil infrastructure, including oil terminals under the control of the government of Yemen.”

He added: “The humanitarian repercussions are severe. We need to put an end to this, by looking thoroughly into the origins of the use of advanced weaponry and by preserving the applicability of the targeted arms embargo.”

This year, Greece, which has a keen interest in maritime security, took over from Japan as the co-penholder on the issue of the Red Sea crisis.

Maritime security is also a key concern for Denmark, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia, who took their seats as newly elected nonpermanent members of the Security Council at the start of this year.

Ships owned or operated by companies from Denmark, Greece and Panama have been targeted by the Houthis in the Red Sea, while Pakistan has participated in maritime-security operations in the Western Indian Ocean. Somalia has been dealing with piracy off its coast for several years.


Egypt’s FM heads to Washington for talks with US officials: ministry

Egypt’s FM heads to Washington for talks with US officials: ministry
Updated 09 February 2025
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Egypt’s FM heads to Washington for talks with US officials: ministry

Egypt’s FM heads to Washington for talks with US officials: ministry

CAIRO: Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty traveled to Washington on Sunday for talks with senior officials from the new Trump administration and members of Congress, his ministry said.
The ministry’s statement said the visit aimed “to boost bilateral relations and strategic partnership between Egypt and the US,” and would include “consultations on regional developments.”


Israeli official says force withdrawal from key Gaza corridor has begun, as part of ceasefire deal

Israeli official says force withdrawal from key Gaza corridor has begun, as part of ceasefire deal
Updated 09 February 2025
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Israeli official says force withdrawal from key Gaza corridor has begun, as part of ceasefire deal

Israeli official says force withdrawal from key Gaza corridor has begun, as part of ceasefire deal

TEL AVIV: An Israeli official said Sunday that Israeli forces have begun withdrawing from a key Gaza corridor, part of a ceasefire deal with Hamas that is moving ahead.

Israel agreed as part of the truce to remove its forces from the Netzarim corridor, a strip of land that bisects northern Gaza from the south. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss troop movement with the media.

At the start of the ceasefire, Israel began allowing Palestinians to cross Netzarim to head to their homes in the war-battered north and the withdrawal of forces from the area will fulfill another commitment to the deal.

It was not clear how many troops Israel had withdrawn on Sunday.

The 42-day ceasefire is just past its halfway point and the sides are supposed to negotiate an extension that would lead to more Israeli hostages being freed from Hamas captivity. But the agreement is fragile and the extension isn’t guaranteed.

The sides are meant to begin talks on the truce’s second stage but there appears to have been little progress.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was sending a delegation to Qatar, a key mediator in talks between the sides, but the mission included low-level officials, sparking speculation that it won’t lead to a breakthrough in extending the truce. Netanyahu is expected to convene a meeting of key Cabinet ministers this week on the second phase of the deal, but it was not clear when.

During the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its Oct.7, 2023, attack in exchange for a pause in fighting, freedom for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a floor of humanitarian aid to war-battered Gaza. The deal stipulates that Israeli troops will pull back from populated areas of Gaza and that on day 22, which is Sunday, Palestinians will be allowed to head north from a central road that crosses through Netzarim, without being inspected by Israeli forces.

In the second phase, all remaining hostages would be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a “sustainable calm.”


2 mass graves with bodies of nearly 50 migrants found in southeastern Libya

2 mass graves with bodies of nearly 50 migrants found in southeastern Libya
Updated 09 February 2025
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2 mass graves with bodies of nearly 50 migrants found in southeastern Libya

2 mass graves with bodies of nearly 50 migrants found in southeastern Libya

CAIRO: Libya authorities uncovered nearly 50 bodies this week from two mass graves in the country’s southeastern desert, officials said Sunday, in the latest tragedy involving people seeking to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African country.
The first mass grave with 19 bodies was found Friday in a farm in the southeastern city of Kufra, the security directorate said in a statement, adding that authorities took them for autopsy.
Authorities posted images on its Facebook page showing police officers and medics digging in the sand and recovering dead bodies that were wrapped in blankets.
The Al-Abreen charity, which helps migrants in eastern and southern Libya, said that some were apparently shot and killed before being buried in the mass grave.
A separate mass grave with at least 30 bodies was also found in Kufra after raiding a human trafficking center, according to Mohamed Al-Fadeil, head of the security chamber in Kufra. Survivors said nearly 70 people were buried in the grave, he added. Authorities were still searching the area.
Migrants’ mass graves are not uncommon in Libya. Last year, authorities unearthed the bodies of at least 65 migrants in the Shuayrif region, 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of the capital, Tripoli.
Libya is the dominant transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East trying to make it to Europe. The country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. Oil-rich Libya has been ruled for most of the past decade by rival governments in eastern and western Libya, each backed by an array of militias and foreign governments.
Human traffickers have benefited from more than a decade of instability, smuggling migrants across the country’s borders with six nations, including Chad, Niger, Sudan Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia.
Once at the coast, traffickers pack desperate migrants seeking a better life in Europe into ill-equipped rubber boats and other vessels for risky voyages on the perilous Central Mediterranean Sea route.
Rights groups and UN agencies have for years documented systematic abuse of migrants in Libya including forced labor, beatings, rapes and torture. The abuse often accompanies efforts to extort money from families before migrants are allowed to leave Libya on traffickers’ boats.
Those who have been intercepted and returned to Libya — including women and children — are held in government-run detention centers where they also suffer from abuse, including torture, rape and extortion, according to rights groups and UN experts.


Egypt to host emergency Arab summit on Feb. 27 to discuss ‘serious’ Palestinian developments

Egypt to host emergency Arab summit on Feb. 27 to discuss ‘serious’ Palestinian developments
Updated 09 February 2025
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Egypt to host emergency Arab summit on Feb. 27 to discuss ‘serious’ Palestinian developments

Egypt to host emergency Arab summit on Feb. 27 to discuss ‘serious’ Palestinian developments
  • Egypt has been rallying regional support against US President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians

CAIRO: Egypt will host a summit of Arab nations on February 27 to discuss “the latest serious developments” concerning the Palestinian territories, its foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The “emergency Arab summit” comes as Egypt has been rallying regional support against US President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan while establishing US control over the coastal territory.

Sunday’s statement said the gathering was called “after extensive consultations by Egypt at the highest levels with Arab countries in recent days, including Palestine, which requested the summit, to address the latest serious developments regarding the Palestinian cause.”

That included coordination with Bahrain, which currently chairs the Arab League, the statement said.

On Friday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty spoke with regional partners including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to shore up opposition to any forced displacement of Palestinians from their land.

Last week, Trump floated the idea of US administration over Gaza, envisioning rebuilding the devastated territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere, namely Egypt and Jordan.

The remarks have prompted global backlash, and Arab countries have firmly rejected the proposal, insisting on a two-state solution with an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.


Israeli military says it is expanding West Bank operation

Israeli military says it is expanding West Bank operation
Updated 27 min 3 sec ago
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Israeli military says it is expanding West Bank operation

Israeli military says it is expanding West Bank operation

JERUSALEM: A pregnant 23-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli security forces on Sunday in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank as part of an expanded Israeli army operation in the occupied territory.

The Palestinian Health ministry said Sundos Jamal Mohammed Shalabi, who was eight months pregnant, was struck by Israeli gunfire, adding that the foetus also did not survive and that Shalabi's husband was critically injured.

The Israeli army said they expanded the military operation to four refugee camps in the West Bank.

In Nur Shams, a Palestinian refugee camp east of Tulkarm, Israeli forces had killed several “militants” and detained wanted individuals in the area, a military spokesperson said on Sunday.

Israel's military, police and intelligence services launched a counter-terrorism operation in Jenin in the West Bank on January 21. 

The operation expanded to Tulkarm, Al Faraa and Tamun, with the military saying it was targeting militants.

It is described by Israeli officials as a “large-scale and significant military operation”. 

Thousands of Palestinians have fled West Bank homes in the wake of the military campaign and the widespread destruction.
Palestinians have said the Israeli campaign is one of the most destructive in recent memory. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry. The Israeli military has said it has killed militants.
This month, the Israeli military released a video of a controlled demolition of buildings in the crowded Jenin refugee camp. It said the 23 buildings were used by militants.

(with AP and Reuters)