UNITED NATIONS: The United States called on Iran on Monday to halt its transfer of an “unprecedented” amount of weaponry to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, enabling its fighters to carry out “reckless attacks” on ships in the Red Sea and elsewhere.
US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the UN Security Council that if it wants to make progress toward ending the civil war in Yemen it must act collectively to “call Iran out for its destabilizing role and insist that it cannot hide behind the Houthis.”
He said there is extensive evidence that Iran is providing advanced weapons, including ballistic and cruise missiles, to the Houthis in violation of UN sanctions.
“To underscore the council’s concern regarding the ongoing violations of the arms embargo, we must do more to strengthen enforcement and deter sanctions violators,” Wood said.
The Houthis say their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are aimed at pressuring Israel to end its war with Hamas in Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, the US Maritime Administration said late last month.
Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a US-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat.
But Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, warned the council that “hostilities continue” even though there has been a reduction in attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean as well as a reduction in the number of US and British airstrikes on targets in Yemen.
He pointed to an announcement by the Houthis that they will “expand the scope of attacks,” calling this “a worrisome provocation in an already volatile situation.”
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council that the Israeli announcement on May 6 that it was starting its military operation in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where 1.2 million Palestinians had sought safety, ratcheted up the spiral of escalation in the region “another notch further.”
“There’s no doubt that this will have an impact on the situation in Yemen’s surrounding waters,” he said, noting the Houthis’ opposition to Israeli attacks that harm Palestinian civilians.
But, Nebenzia added, “We call for a swift cessation of the shelling of commercial vessels and any other actions that hamper maritime navigation.”
He sharply criticized the United States and its Western allies, saying their “totally unjustified aggressive strikes” in Yemen violate the UN Charter. He said they further complicate an already complex situation and won’t improve the situation in the Red Sea.
The war between the Houthis and pro-government forces in Yemen backed by a coalition of Gulf Arab states has raged since 2014. The Houthis swept down from the mountains, seized much of northern Yemen and the country’s capital, Sanaa, and forced the internationally recognized government to flee into exile to Saudi Arabia. Since then, more than 150,000 people have been killed by the violence and 3 million have been displaced.
Fighting has decreased markedly in Yemen since a truce in April 2022, but there are still hotspots in the country
Grundberg recalled that in December the Houthis and the government “took a courageous step toward a peaceful solution” by agreeing to a series of commitments that would provide for a nationwide ceasefire, ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid, and initiate a political process to end the conflict.
But UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths reported “alarmingly high” levels of severe food deprivation across the country that are expected to worsen during the lean season for crops starting in June.
Griffiths also expressed serious concern about a rapidly worsening cholera outbreak. He cited reports of 40,000 suspected cholera cases and over 160 deaths — “a sharp increase” since last month, the majority in Houthi-controlled areas “where hundreds of new cases are reported every day.”
US calls on Iran to halt ‘unprecedented’ weapons transfers to Yemen’s Houthis for attacks on ships
https://arab.news/9pm3v
US calls on Iran to halt ‘unprecedented’ weapons transfers to Yemen’s Houthis for attacks on ships
- The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, the US Maritime Administration said late last month
Will the deal between Damascus and Syria’s Kurds help achieve national reconciliation?
- In a step toward national unity, the Syrian interim government and Kurdish-led SDF signed a landmark integration deal on March 10
- Outbreak of violence against Alawites has raised concerns among Kurds about Syrian militias’ commitment to minority rights
LONDON: In a bid to unify the Syrian Arab Republic, the interim government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces signed a landmark deal on March 10. The enactment remains uncertain, though, particularly after the recent constitutional declaration.
Aimed at integrating all military and civilian institutions into the Syrian state, the deal comes at a critical time as President Ahmad Al-Sharaa seeks legitimacy amid growing international scrutiny over the killings of minority Alawites by allied militias.
If enacted, the agreement “could significantly reshape Syria’s post-war landscape,” Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Arab News.
“The timing is key,” he said. “The deal comes as Syria faces major security challenges, including recent massacres on the coast and Israeli interventions in the south. These pressures likely pushed Damascus to sign the agreement.”
Mutlu Civiroglu, a Washington-based Kurdish affairs analyst, says signing the deal with SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi allows Al-Sharaa “to present himself as a leader committed to ensuring all identities are represented in Syria’s future.”
According to Civiroglu, Abdi is “a highly respected figure not only among Kurds but also across other communities, such as the Alawites, Druze, and Christians.”
Kurdish groups, united under the umbrella of the SDF and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), have condemned the recent attacks on Alawites — the ethno-religious group from which the Assad family traces its roots.
Abdi described the attacks as part of a “systematic campaign against Syria’s minorities.” He told Reuters news agency that Al-Sharaa must “intervene to halt the massacres.”
On March 6, the deadliest bloodshed since Bashar Assad’s fall in December began when Assad loyalists ambushed security forces in Jableh, Latakia province, killing 13. The attack set off a wave of reprisals, with revenge killings targeting Alawite civilians.
Violence escalated further on March 9 as clashes reignited in Banias, also in Latakia, when security forces came under attack at a power plant. Within days, at least 1,300 people, including 973 civilians, were killed, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Against this backdrop, Rami Abdulrahman, head of the SOHR, told a Kurdish news channel that tens of thousands of Alawites who had fled the violence on the coast for the safety of the mountains believe an SDF presence in their areas could provide a “safe haven.”
The Damascus-SDF deal, set for implementation by the end of the year, recognizes that “the Kurdish community is indigenous to the Syrian state,” guaranteeing “its right to citizenship and all of its constitutional rights,” according to a presidential statement.
It also mandates a complete cessation of hostilities in SDF-controlled areas, which have been under attack by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army since Dec. 8, when a Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham-led coalition ousted the Assad regime.
“For Syrian Kurds in Rojava — Kurdish Syria — the agreement guarantees recognition of their rights, something they lacked under Assad before the war,” said Hawach of the International Crisis Group.
The deal also includes economic benefits for both sides.
Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, says oil is a key part of the agreement and “will be key to raising revenue for the new Syria.”
The interim government “will gain full control over the oil fields, which is a triumph, but the Kurds will get half the proceeds, which was a win for them,” he told Arab News.
“This will allow the government to hire foreign oil companies to repair Syria’s dilapidated industry and energy infrastructure. Syria needs major foreign investment in its energy sector, which was impossible so long as control over the oil region was contested.”
Syria’s oil industry is in a dire state, with production plummeting from pre-war levels of up to 400,000 barrels per day to as little as 80,000, according to S&P Global, a financial intelligence and analytics firm.
Years of conflict, sanctions, and damaged infrastructure have crippled the sector, leaving Syria heavily reliant on imports. Reviving oil production is seen as critical to funding the country’s reconstruction, which could cost up to $400 billion.
Reinforcing Landis’ argument, Hawach said the deal’s implementation could “provide economic benefits — as the northeast is Syria’s most resource-rich region — and open the door for joint efforts with Damascus against (Daesh).”
He added: “For Syrians under the HTS-led administration, the deal marks a major step toward national reintegration. The return of 30 percent of Syria under Damascus’ control, after over a decade of fragmentation, could improve governance, service delivery, and economic stability.”
The move, seen as a step toward national reconciliation after 14 years of conflict, has been welcomed by the UN and regional and Western countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, France, Germany, and Canada.
However, Hawach stressed that the agreement’s success hinges on how the parties resolve the still undecided practical aspects of reintegration.
Landis agrees that while the deal “gives a degree of autonomy to northeastern Syria” and sets out key principles, it is “not a fully worked-out plan,” he said.
“Many of the thorny details will have to be worked out in the future,” he added.
Landis pointed out that “a key element is the military,” explaining that “the Kurds insisted on having their own force, resident in the northeast.”
Under the accord, the SDF must integrate into the Syrian Defense Ministry and cede control of all border crossings with Iraq and Turkiye, as well as airports and oil fields in the northeastern semi-autonomous region it has controlled since 2015.
“There has been a compromise in that the SDF will be placed under the Ministry of Defense, but only regional forces will be placed in the northeast,” said Landis. “How this will all work out is not clear.
“The Kurds are clearly hoping for something similar to the arrangement in Iraq, where in essence they have their own mini ministry of defense,” he added.
In Iraq, the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs oversees the Kurdistan Region’s own armed forces, which are responsible for protecting the semi-autonomous territory’s borders, land and sovereignty.
Landis said Syria’s interim president “does not want to accord the minorities autonomy,” adding that “he has stated that Syria will have a centralized state.”
Furthermore, “the new constitution makes no mention of a special arrangement for the Kurds,” he added.
On March 13, Al-Sharaa signed a temporary constitution establishing Islamist rule in Syria for a five-year transitional period. The following day, the SDF’s political wing, the Syrian Democratic Council, rejected the constitutional declaration and called for it to be redrafted.
The council argued that the temporary constitution “reintroduces authoritarianism” by centralizing power and granting unchecked authority to the executive.
“The SDC strongly rejects any attempt to recreate dictatorship under the guise of a ‘transitional phase.’ Any constitutional declaration must be the result of genuine national consensus, not a project imposed by one party.”
The council called for “a complete reformulation of the declaration” to “ensure a fair distribution of power, guarantee freedom of political activity, and recognize the rights of all Syrian components.”
Israel’s surprise bombardment plunged Palestinians back into ‘hell’
- Israel not only blocked all supplies from entering Gaza two weeks ago but also cut off electricity to the territory’s main desalination plant last week
- The Muslim holy month of Ramadan had even provided moments of joy as families held communal sunset meals ending each day’s fast without the fear of bombardment
DEIR EL BALAH, Gaza Strip: The Israeli bombs began falling before dawn, lighting the sky with orange flares and shattering the stillness.
The surprise wave of airstrikes plunged Palestinians back into a nightmare they had hoped might be behind them.
The bombs crashed across Gaza early Tuesday, setting fire to a sprawling tent camp in the southern city of Khan Younis and flattening a Hamas-run prison. They hit the Al-Tabaeen shelter in Gaza City, where Majid Nasser was sleeping with his family.
“I went out to see where the bombing was. Suddenly the second strike happened in the room next to us,” he said. “I heard screaming, my mother and sister screaming, calling for help. I came and entered the room and found the children under the rubble.” Everyone was injured, but alive.
Palestinians tried to claw bodies from the wreckage with their bare hands. Parents arrived at hospitals, barefoot, carrying children who were limp and covered in ash. Streets and hospitals filled with bodies.
By midday, over 400 people had been killed. It was one of the deadliest days of the 17-month war, following two months of ceasefire.
During the truce that began on Jan. 19, hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza had returned to their homes, many of them destroyed. A surge of aid brought food and medicines — until Israel cut off aid two weeks ago to pressure the Hamas militant group into accepting a new proposal instead of continuing with the truce.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan had even provided moments of joy as families held communal sunset meals ending each day’s fast without the fear of bombardment.
Instead, the war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction was back with full force.
“What is happening to us is hell. Hell in every sense of the word,” said Zeyad Abed, as he stood among the blackened remains of tents in Khan Younis.
Fedaa Heriz, a displaced woman in Gaza City, said victims were killed in their sleep just before the predawn meal ahead of the daily Ramadan fast.
“They set the alarm to wake up for suhoor, and they wake up to death? They don’t wake up?” she screamed.
Fedaa Hamdan lost her husband and their two children in the strikes in Khan Younis.
“My children died while they were hungry,” she said, as funeral prayers were held over their bodies.
Hospitals ‘felt like Armageddon’
Scenes at hospitals recalled the early days of the war, when Israel launched a massive bombardment of Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
Survivors on Tuesday held rushed funeral rites over dozens of body bags lining the yard of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Mothers sobbed over the bloodied bodies of children, as warplanes hummed overhead. Doctors struggled to treat the flow of wounded.
“A level of horror and evil that is really hard to articulate. It felt like Armageddon,” said Dr. Tanya-Hajj Hassan, a volunteer with the Medical Aid for Palestinians aid group.
She described the Nasser Hospital emergency room in Khan Younis as chaos, with patients, including children, spread across the floor. Some were still wrapped in the blankets they had slept in.
Dr. Ismail Awad with the Doctors Without Borders aid group said the clinic received about 26 wounded people, including a woman seven months pregnant with shrapnel in her neck. She later died.
“It was overwhelming, the number of patients,” Awad said.
At the Al-Attar clinic in Muwasi in southern Gaza, medical staff said they were forced to operate without light bulbs and emergency ventilation devices.
Israel not only blocked all supplies from entering Gaza two weeks ago but also cut off electricity to the territory’s main desalination plant last week. That has again created scarcities in medicine, food, fuel and fresh water for Gaza’s over 2 million people.
Palestinians flee once more
New Israeli evacuation orders covering Gaza’s eastern flank next to Israel and stretching into a key corridor dividing Gaza’s north and south sent Palestinians fleeing again.
Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, published a map on X telling Palestinians in those areas, including highly populated neighborhoods, to leave immediately and head for shelters.
“Continuing to remain in the designated areas puts your life and the lives of your family members at risk,” he said.
The evacuation zone appeared to include parts of Gaza’s main north-south road, raising questions about how people might travel. Palestinians nevertheless gathered their belongings and set out, hardly knowing where to go.
UNICEF spokesperson Rosalia Bollen recalled that the days before the bombardment felt uneasy. She could sense fear. Children would ask if she believed the war would start again.
“This nightmare scenario has been on everyone’s mind,” she said. “It’s just heartbreaking that it is materializing right now and that it is shattering the last piece of hope that people had.”
Jordanian food exporters set sights on UK and beyond at exhibition in London
- Companies hope 3-day International Food and Drink Event will be a key platform for promoting wide range of products to international buyers and distributors
- ‘UK’s autonomy in trade policy, coupled with its substantial Arab and Muslim consumer base, presents a unique opportunity,’ says Jordan Exporters Association boss
LONDON: Food manufacturers from Jordan are showcasing their products at the International Food and Drink Event in London this week, as they make a concerted push to enter the potentially lucrative UK market.
The Jordanian delegation views the three-day exhibition, which began on Monday and concludes on Wednesday, as a key platform on which to promote a diverse range of products, including confectionery, baked goods, spices, nuts and specialty items, to a global audience of buyers and distributors, the Jordan News Agency reported.
Ahmad Khudari, president of the Jordan Exporters Association, which is spearheading the country’s participation at the exhibition, said the event has an important role to play in fostering new trade relationships.
“Our objective is to establish direct channels with international buyers and distributors, highlighting the competitive edge and superior quality of Jordanian food products,” he said.
The aim is to expand Jordan’s presence in the growing halal food sector and broader international markets, he said, adding: “Expanding our market reach is essential for stimulating domestic production, fostering industrial expansion, attracting foreign investment, and strengthening our trade balance.”
Halim Abu Rahma, the association’s general manager, said there has been strong interest from international buyers during the event in London.
“The exhibition has drawn significant attention from key buyers, offering Jordanian companies a valuable opportunity to highlight their product innovation and quality,” he said.
“The UK’s autonomy in trade policy, coupled with its substantial Arab and Muslim consumer base, presents a unique opportunity for Jordanian food manufacturers to establish a strong foothold,” he added as he stressed the strategic significance of the British market, particularly in the post-Brexit trade landscape, and urged businesses to leverage the terms of the free trade deal between Jordan and the UK.
The agreement, which came into effect in 2021, aims to bolster bilateral trade by granting Jordanian products tariff-free entry into the UK, mirroring a similar trade deal between Jordan and the EU.
In 2023, trade between Jordan and the UK was worth about 303 million dinars ($427 million), with Jordanian exports accounting for 62 million dinars of the total.
The International Food and Drink Event 2025 features 1,500 exhibitors from around the world, and was expected to attract about 30,000 buyers and distributors from more than 105 countries.
Nearly 13,000 Syrians fled to Lebanon: report
- Violence erupted on Syria’s coast — the heartland of former president Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority — with attacks on security forces that were blamed on gunmen loyal to the toppled president
BEIRUT: Nearly 13,000 Syrians fled across the borders to Lebanon since sectarian massacres on the Syrian coast earlier this month, Lebanese authorities said on Tuesday.
A report from Lebanon’s Disaster Risk Management Unit said 12,798 Syrians had arrived and settled in 23 different villages and towns in Lebanon’s northern Akkar region, adding that most were living in family homes or makeshift accommodation centers.
Violence erupted on Syria’s coast — the heartland of former president Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority — with attacks on security forces that were blamed on gunmen loyal to the toppled president.
According to the latest toll from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, Syrian security forces and allied groups subsequently killed at least 1,557 civilians, the vast majority Alawites.
Thousands of coastal residents took refuge in Russia’s Hmeimim air base, calling for protection, while others fled south to neighboring Lebanon.
Israel is ramping up annexation of West Bank, UN rights chief says
- ‘The transfer by Israel of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime’
GENEVA: Israel has expanded and consolidated settlements in the occupied West Bank as part of the steady integration of these territories into the State of Israel, in breach of international law, the UN human rights office said in a report on Tuesday.
The report, based on research between Nov. 1, 2023, and Oct. 31, 2024, said there had been a “significant” expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and cited reports by Israeli NGOs of tens of thousands of planned housing units in new or existing settlements.
The findings will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council this month and come amid growing fears of annexation among Palestinians, as US policy shifts under President Donald Trump and new settler outposts are put down in areas of the West Bank seen as part of a future Palestinian state.
“The transfer by Israel of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime,” UN High Commissioner Volker Turk said in a statement accompanying the report, urging the international community to take meaningful action.
“Israel must immediately and completely cease all settlement activities and evacuate all settlers, stop the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population, and prevent and punish attacks by its security forces and settlers,” he said.
Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land Israel captured in 1967. Most countries consider Israel’s settlements on territory seized in war to be illegal.
Israel’s military says it is conducting counter-terrorism operations in the West Bank and targeting suspected militants.
Plans for the further provision of Israeli government services in these settlements “further institutionalize(s) long-standing patterns of systematic discrimination, segregation, oppression, domination, violence and other inhumane acts against the Palestinian people,” the report said.
