UK warship seizes advanced Iranian missiles bound for Yemen
A British Royal Navy vessel seized a sophisticated shipment of Iranian missiles in the Gulf of Oman earlier this year, officials said Thursday, pointing to the interdiction as proof of Tehran’s support for Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the embattled country. The British government statement was striking in that it provided some of the strongest findings to date that Tehran is arming the Houthis against the Saudi-led military coalition with advanced weapons smuggled through the Persian Gulf.
news.yahoo.comAnalysis: Condolence calls from elite show UAE ruler's power
Coming from around the globe, airplanes carrying world leaders have landed in the capital of the United Arab Emirates to offer condolences for the death of the country's president — and acknowledge the influence of the man now fully in charge. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan rarely speaks publicly. The new president shies away from the United Nations' annual summit in New York.
news.yahoo.comParis trial for 2009 plane crash that left 152 dead, 1 alive
The lone survivor of a 2009 plane crash that killed 152 other people is expected to attend the trial of Yemen's main airline which is opening Monday in Paris. At just 12 years old, Bahia Bakari clung to floating debris from the plane for 11 hours in the Indian Ocean before being rescued. Now 25, she recently told France 3 television she would attend the trial with both “apprehension” and “relief.”
news.yahoo.comF1 in Saudi Arabia shifts from human rights to rebel attacks
Hours after Formula One drivers voiced concerns about a race already dogged by human rights issues, Saudi Arabia’s war with Yemen landed on F1's doorstep when Houthi rebels attacked an oil depot near the glittering Saudi track where they were racing.
'Harrowing figures': Yemen report says 161K to face famine
More than a dozen U.N. agencies and international aid groups said Monday that 161,000 people in war-torn Yemen are likely to experience famine over the second half of 2022 — a fivefold increase from the current figure. The stark warning came in a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, ahead of an annual fund-raising conference that the United Nations is hosting on Wednesday. The IPC is a global partnership of 15 U.N. agencies and humanitarian organizations working in Yemen and funded by the European Union, the USAID and UKAID.
news.yahoo.comReport: Wanted Norwegian al-Qaida member held in Yemen
A Norwegian citizen who became a member of al-Qaida in Yemen has been arrested in Yemen by the country's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, Norwegian broadcaster NRK said Monday. According to the report, Anders Cameroon Østensvig Dale is being held in a hospital in Sanaa. It was unclear when and how he was apprehended and there was no immediate confirmation from the Houthis.
news.yahoo.comUS F-22 fighter jets arrive in UAE after Houthi attacks
The Raptors landed at Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, which hosts some 2,000 U.S. troops. American soldiers there launched Patriot interceptor missiles in response to the Houthi attacks last month, the first time U.S. troops have fired the system in combat since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
news.yahoo.comU.S. looks to build on security guarantees to UAE after Houthi missile attacks
U.S. troops stationed at al-Dhafra Air Base in the UAE have fired Patriot missiles to intercept Houthi-launched missiles on at least two occasions in recent weeks. The attacks forced the Americans to scramble for cover in reinforced bunkers.
washingtonpost.comYemen rebel attack on UAE brings tragedy to Indian families
First, there was a pop, like firecrackers, then the world itself seemed to splinter. Ramjan Rath felt a sharp pain. Rath, whose fuel tanker blew up in a fatal attack on Abu Dhabi last month claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels last month, was standing by his truck filling out forms when the drones hit.
news.yahoo.comUS military fired missiles during Yemen Houthi attack on UAE
The U.S. military launched interceptor missiles during an attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels that targeted the United Arab Emirates during a visit by Israel's president, the second-such time American troops have opened fire, officials said. The acknowledgement by the White House and Pentagon late Monday represent a widening American involvement in Yemen's yearslong war, a conflict that President Joe Biden declared nearly a year ago “has to end.”
news.yahoo.comWhy UAE Is Latest Target as Yemen’s War Heats Up
Yemen’s Houthi fighters claimed three rare attacks on the United Arab Emirates in two weeks, an escalation in a conflict that’s stoking tensions in the oil-exporting Gulf region. The assaults were the UAE’s first brush with major blowback from its involvement in the nearly seven-year war in Yemen. The Houthis have vowed more attacks to come, potentially threatening the UAE’s commercial center of Dubai.
washingtonpost.comIsrael president on 1st visit to UAE amid regional tension
Israel’s figurehead president met the powerful crown prince of Abu Dhabi on Sunday on the first official visit to the United Arab Emirates by the country’s head of state, the latest sign of deepening ties between the two nations as tensions rise in the region. The UAE and Israel normalized relations in the fall of 2020, part of a series of U.S.-brokered diplomatic deals between Israel and Arab states that had long avoided formal relations with Israel over its decades-old conflict with the Palestinians.
news.yahoo.comGaza's Hamas rulers play down pro-Iran demonstration
The Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers on Sunday tried to distance themselves from a protest staged by a pro-Iranian militant group that harshly attacked Saudi Arabia over its role in Yemen’s civil war. During Saturday’s demonstration by Islamic Jihad, dozens of protesters chanted “Death to the House of Saud” and waved posters of the leader of Yemen’s Houthi militia. Although Hamas did not participate in the protest, it tightly controls Gaza and authorizes all public gatherings.
news.yahoo.comOver a dozen dead as coalition bombs Yemen after UAE attack
The Saudi-led coalition killed 14 people in air strikes on Yemen's rebel-held capital, a medical source said, after an attack by Huthi insurgents on the United Arab Emirates sent regional tensions soaring. Sanaa residents were combing the rubble for survivors of the strikes that levelled two houses, hours after the Huthis had killed three people Monday in a drone and missile attack on the UAE capital Abu Dhabi.
news.yahoo.com'This is hell': UN food aid chief visits Yemen, fears famine
FILE - In this Nov. 23, 2019 file photo, a woman holds her malnourished boy at a feeding center at the Al-Sabeen Hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. Beasley visited Yemen earlier this week, including the capital of Sanaa which is under the control of Iran-backed Houthi rebels. He said that at a child malnutrition ward in a Sanaa hospital he saw children wasting away from lack of food. A pledging conference last month raised a little more than half from the international community of what was needed to continue food aid services for the next year. AdOne source of funding for Yemen could be a new anonymous aid fund.
Yemen rebels claim Saudi oil facility hit; no damage seen
FILE - This Sept. 15, 2019, file photo, shows storage tanks at the North Jiddah bulk plant, an Aramco oil facility, in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia. A Houthi military spokesman, tweeted that the rebels fired a new Quds-2 cruise missile at the facility. Gen. Yehia Sarie, a Houthi military spokesman, tweeted that the rebels fired a new Quds-2 cruise missile at the facility. A Saudi-led military coalition launched a bombing campaign to dislodge the Houthis and restore the internationally recognized government. Saudi Arabia has faced widespread international criticism for its airstrikes that have killed civilians and hit non-military targets in Yemen.
Saudi TV: Yemen rebel attack on airport sets plane on fire
In this frame grab from video, Saudi state television shows an airplane damaged in an attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels at an airport near Abha, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. (Saudi state television via AP)DUBAI – Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday targeted an airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia with bomb-laden drones, causing a civilian plane on the tarmac to catch fire, the kingdom's state television reported. Photographs later aired by Saudi state television showed the aircraft, a 3-year-old Airbus A320 flown by low-cost carrier FlyADeal. AdU.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his counterparts in Saudi Arabia after the strike. He repeated U.S. assurances that America intends to help Saudi Arabia increase its ability to defend itself.
Biden ending US support for Saudi-led offensive in Yemen
The reversal of policy also comes as a rebuke to Saudi Arabia. Saudi state media focused on that part of Biden's announcements Thursday. The Houthis have launched multiple drone and missile strikes deep into Saudi Arabia. The weeks-old Biden administration has made clear that shifting its stance toward the Yemen war, and toward Saudi Arabia over the Yemen offensive and other rights abuses, was a priority. A career foreign service member, he has served in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere.
For some Muslims, hope, uncertainty after travel ban lifted
Mohammed Al Zabidi holds his canceled U.S. visa at his home in Sanaa, Yemen, on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. The Trump administrations travel ban that affected several Muslim-majority nations robbed him of his American dream and his chance to escape his war-torn homeland. I won!” Al Zabidi cheered. So Al Zabidi is left wondering whether he'll ever make it to the States to start working there and repay what he borrowed. Biden has not indicated whether he will lift it, and ending the travel ban will mean little if he doesn't, said Rafael Urena, a California attorney.
'External source' causes oil tanker blast off Saudi Arabia
The apparent attack on the oil tanker marks the fourth assault targeting Saudi energy infrastructure in a month. The attack on the Singapore-flagged BW Rhine, which had been contracted by the trading arm of the kingdom's massive Saudi Arabian Oil Co., marks the fourth assault targeting Saudi energy infrastructure in a month. The explosion comes after a mine exploded and damaged a ship off Saudi Arabia last month. Saudi Arabia recently accused the Houthis of dumping mines into the southern Red Sea, which could be carried toward Jiddah. A stepped-up campaign of drone-boat attacks deeper into the Red Sea likely would do the same.
Yemen rebels' missile strikes Saudi oil facility in Jiddah
DUBAI – Yemen's Houthi rebels said they struck a Saudi oil facility in the port city of Jiddah early Monday with a new cruise missile, just hours after the kingdom finished hosting its virtual Group of 20 leaders summit. Videos of a small explosion at a Saudi Arabian Oil Co. facility in Jiddah had circulated on social media all day and a satellite photo confirmed damage at the site. Gen. Yehia Sarie, a Houthi military spokesman, tweeted early Monday that the rebels fired a new Quds-2 cruise missile at the facility. He posted a satellite image online that matched Aramco's North Jiddah Bulk Plant, where oil products are stored in tanks. Its stock traded slightly up Monday on Riyadh's Tadawul stock exchange as crude oil prices remained steady above $40 a barrel.
In multiple countries, alarm over hunger crisis rings louder
They cried loudly, twisting as if in pain, not from disease but from the hunger gnawing away at them. Here, U.N. officials’ increasingly dire warnings that a hunger crisis is growing around the world are becoming reality. U.N. agencies have warned that some 250 million people in 20 countries are threatened with sharply spiking malnutrition or even famine in coming months. The United Nations humanitarian office this week released $100 million in emergency funding to seven countries most at risk of famine — Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Congo, and Burkina Faso. But David Beasley, head of the World Food Program, says billions in new aid are needed.
UN chief appeals for cease-fires, warns pandemic wins wars
“But we still have a number of situations where the spoilers or the mistrust that existed has not allowed the cease-fire to materialize,” he said. “In the last two weeks, COVID cases have doubled in Armenia and increased 80 percent in Azerbaijan,” he said in Wednesday’s AP interview. We need to stop.”Guterres said the same holds true for the conflicts in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Africa’s Sahel region and elsewhere. “I’m here to appeal to all of them to understand that there’s no way to win any war,” he said. “The only way is to join efforts for cease-fires, political talks and to defeat COVID.
Watchdog report: Pompeo acted properly in Saudi arms sale
WASHINGTON The State Department's internal watchdog has found that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not act improperly last year when he approved billions of dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia without the consent of Congress. The State Department Office of Inspector General concluded in a report released Tuesday that Pompeo had the legal authority to declare an emergency and bypass Congress under the Arms Export Control Act. Pompeo cited the threat posed by Iran and its support for rebels in Yemen to justify approving arms sales totaling $8.1 billion to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. The report concluded that the law grants the secretary the discretion to decide what constitutes an emergency, something three previous administrations have done with respect to arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The official said the big takeaway from the report is that Pompeo and the department acted in accordance with the law" as it sought to aid the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.