Keeping Yemen out of a broader Middle East conflict is our key goal, US special envoy Tim Lenderking tells Arab News

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Updated 28 September 2024
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Keeping Yemen out of a broader Middle East conflict is our key goal, US special envoy Tim Lenderking tells Arab News

  • Special envoy says Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping are not helping the Palestinians, aid efforts, or regional economies
  • Speaking during the UN General Assembly, Lenderking says the US would like to see Iran play a constructive role on Yemen

NEW YORK CITY: The world cannot lose sight of Yemen as the country’s long-running peace process risks becoming collateral damage to a regional conflict, the US special envoy for Yemen has told Arab News.

Tim Lenderking is in New York City against the backdrop of the UN General Assembly to help rally international support for a solution to Yemen’s decade-long civil war.

A truce negotiated in April 2022 between warring parties in Yemen initially led to a fall in violence and a slight easing of the dire humanitarian situation. However, events elsewhere in the Middle East risk derailing this progress.

“I do feel very strongly that a lot of progress was made in ways that meant something to the Yemeni people,” Lenderking said. “Commercial flights are still operating out of Sanaa airport for the first time since 2016. There’s so much we could do to build on this progress.

“There was a big prisoner release a year ago. We want to keep the dialogue going, to release the remaining prisoners from the Yemen conflict — they are missed by their loved ones, by their families.”




CaptionYemen’s President Rashad Mohammed Al-Alimi speaks during the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on September 26, 2024. (AFP)

Lenderking said US officials were currently exploring opportunities for renewed progress on the Yemen peace track. They are engaged in a “broad conversation” with Yemeni leaders in New York City, including President Rashad Al-Alimi, as well as his vice presidents and foreign minister.

“We’ve had several meetings with him already,” said Lenderking, describing the Yemeni delegation as “strong.”

He added: “We just finished a meeting with nine countries that came to show their respect for the Yemeni government, to pledge their support and to encourage the Yemeni government to remain united, effective, visible, reaching out to the Yemeni people demonstrating that the government is there, is functioning well, and is trying to meet the needs of the people.”  

Since the war began in Gaza last October, Yemen’s Houthi militia — which controls vast swaths of territory in the country including the capital, Sanaa — declared a blockade of all Israel-linked ships crossing the Red Sea.




Houthi fighters protest in Sanaa on January 12, 2024 following US and British forces strikes in a bid to stop the militia's drone and missile attacks against commercial shipping on the Red Sea. (AFP)

The Iran-backed armed political and religious group views itself as a part of the Iranian-led “Axis of Resistance” against Israel, the US and the West.

It has threatened to continue its attacks on vessels until Israel ends its assault on Gaza. Since January, the UK and the US, in coalition with five other countries, have responded with retaliatory strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

The Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel and subsequent war in Gaza has had significant knock-on effects on Yemen, a country already reeling from nine years of war.

Publicized as a stand of defiance against Israel and a demonstration of solidarity with the Palestinian people, hundreds of attacks by the Houthis on commercial and military vessels in the strategic waterway have caused significant disruption to global trade.

Two vessels have been sunk.




This picture taken on March 7, 2024 shows the Rubymar cargo ship partly submerged off the coast of Yemen after it was hit by a Houthi missile. (AFP/File)

Lenderking, however, believes the Houthi campaign is a “self-serving agenda” that is failing to help Gaza.

“The attacks on Red Sea shipping are actually hampering commercial goods and humanitarian supplies getting into Yemen, and they’re hurting regional economies,” he said. “So, we want to look at ways that we can de-escalate — that has been our central mission ever since Gaza.

“And it’s also to keep Yemen away from these broader regional conflicts that it could be dragged into. That would be very damaging for the hopes that we have for Yemen.”

The UN’s Yemen envoy, Hans Grundberg, told the Security Council earlier this month that the war in Gaza, and the regional escalation associated with it, is complicating his diplomatic efforts to move the peace process forward.




Explosion rocks the Chios Lion, a Liberia-flagged crude oil tanker, after it was hit by unmanned surface vessels in the Red Sea on July 15, 2024. (Ansarullah Media Center handout photo/Via AFP)

Lenderking conceded that separating the two conflicts was “very difficult.”

“But we have sought to do that, and we’ve put ideas on the table and made suggestions,” he said.

Part of that diplomatic push involved Saudi Arabia and Oman, who “have such a strong stake in the outcome of the conflict.”

“Those two countries want peace … and the Yemeni people, above all, I think they deserve peace after many years of bloodshed and destruction,” he said.

“So, there is a moment, still, where we can try to harness the goodwill, the energy of the international community, to support a peace effort in Yemen.”




Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman meeting with a Houthi delegation in Riyadh on Sept. 19, 2023. (SPA/File)

Aidarus Al-Zubaidi, leader of the Southern Transitional Council, a faction in the civil war opposed to the Houthis, warned this week that US and UK airstrikes on Yemen were causing a spike in popularity for the militia.

But Lenderking described any support for the Houthis as “fundamentally misguided.”

“If you look at their actual engagements and attacks, these are harmful to the Yemeni people, and they don’t help the Palestinian people,” he said.

“And that is the reality, and I think every country around the region knows that and sees the Houthi attacks as a self-serving agenda.

“So, we need to hear more voices from the region saying: ‘Wait a minute, what are the Houthis doing? Is it helping Yemen or is it hurting the prospects for more humanitarian assistance, and aid and development?’.”

The humanitarian situation in Yemen has also become markedly worse in recent months amid rising food insecurity, the spread of cholera and major flooding in sections of the country.




Displaced Yemenis affected by floods receive humanitarian aid in the Hays region on September 9, 2024. (AFP)

Efforts by the UN and its partners to respond to these crises have faced challenges stemming from a lack of funding and a shrinking humanitarian operating space.

In June, the Houthis detained 13 Yemeni national staff employed by UN agencies and more than 50 NGO and civil society organization employees who remain under detention.

Lenderking warned against “complicating the work of humanitarian people who are there to support the Yemeni people.”

At the UN General Assembly, Lenderking is also “trying to harness more international support for Yemen” from donors, who, he conceded, were facing “huge challenges and pressures from the terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza and Ukraine.”

“I feel that there’s much more that could be done,” he added.

“How do we keep Yemen in the focus and bringing resources to Yemen, bringing support to the Yemeni government, and having the tremendous energy that comes from the international community supporting this conflict? That’s what we’re trying to maintain and even build on.”  




A handout picture released by the Houthi-affiliated branch of the Yemeni News Agency SABA on April 9, 2023, shows the militia's political leader Mahdi al-Mashat (C) meeting with delegations from Saudi Arabia and Oman in Sanaa. (SABA/AFP)

Iran’s sponsorship of the Houthis is causing headaches for those supporting the peace track.

Tehran publicly welcomed the truce in Yemen two years ago, but nonetheless continued the fueling and arming of the Houthis in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, said Lenderking.

Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, signaled to world leaders on Tuesday that he wanted to open a “constructive” chapter in his country’s foreign policy.

“I aim to lay a strong foundation for my country’s entry into a new era, positioning it to play an effective and constructive role in the evolving global order,” said Pezeshkian.

But Lenderking has questions over the change in tone.

“I think people are looking forward to hearing what the Iranian leadership has to say about the state of tension in the region, and whether they are bringing anything new that can be constructive,” he said.




UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (right) welcomes Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian ahead of their meeting at UN headquarters in New York on September 24, 2024. (Iranian Presidency handout photo/AFP) 

“We’re hearing some flowery words and some nice words, but what are the Iranians actually committed to doing to de-escalate? Because I think that is the goal that we seek, and certainly in the case of Yemen, we’d like to see Iran play a constructive role. Let’s bring the temperature down and find a way to get back to a sustainable peace track in Yemen.”  

Lenderking’s focus during the UN General Assembly has been to bring Yemen back into focus among policymakers and donors.

“There are some conflicts that are absolutely raging. We look at what’s happening in Gaza, and we look at problems and challenges in Sudan and elsewhere. Ukraine, of course.

“We’re here, my team, with regional support, to use this incredible platform here to remind people Yemen is a beautiful and rich country that wants to return to its position as a stable country and a stable neighbor.

“We can get there with strong support, and so reminding the international community of the importance of Yemen and not having Yemen dragged into a broader regional conflict is our key goal here.”




Al-Khuraybah, a town in Wadi Dawan region in Yemen's Hadhramaut governorate, is one of Yemen's treasures that have thankfully be spared by war. US special envoy Tim Lenderking says Yemen is a beautiful and rich country and the world ought to help return it to its position as a stable country and a stable neighbor. (Shutterstock photo)

What is at stake in Yemen was driven home this week at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where an exhibition was held for 14 Yemeni sculptures that were recently repatriated from a private donor in New Zealand.

Lenderking, who described the artworks as “incredible,” said the exhibition “symbolizes the unity of Yemen’s cultural heritage.”

He added: “Any Yemeni party could agree this is a country with cultural depth that has a beautiful legacy and incredible history and has been influential in the region in a very positive way.

“And wouldn’t it be great if we could work together so that Yemen can play that historical role and move out of the fires of war?”
 

 


After PKK move, healing Turkiye-Kurd ties needs ‘paradigm shift’: Ocalan

Updated 19 May 2025
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After PKK move, healing Turkiye-Kurd ties needs ‘paradigm shift’: Ocalan

  • Ocalan is unlikely to be freed, as his life would likely come under threat, but the conditions of his imprisonment are likely to be “eased,” officials say

ISTANBUL: A “major” shift is needed to repair broken ties between the Turkish state and the country’s Kurdish minority following the historic decision of the Kurdistan Workers Party to disarm, its jailed founder said Sunday.
The message from Abdullah Ocalan was transmitted through a delegation of the pro-Kurdish DEM party who visited the Imrali prison island near Istanbul where Ocalan has been serving life in solitary confinement since 1999.
It was their first visit since the May 12 disarmament announcement, which sought to draw a line under conflict that began in 1984 when the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) took up arms. More than 40,000 people have died since.
“What we are doing involves a major paradigm shift,” wrote the 76-year-old former guerrilla.
“The Turkish-Kurdish relationship is like a brotherly relationship that is broken. Brothers and sisters fight, but they can’t exist without each other,” he said, calling for “a new agreement based on the concept of brotherhood.”
“We must clear away, one-by-one, all the traps and minefields that spoil this relationship, we must repair the broken roads and bridges.”
Only DEM lawmaker Pervin Buldan visited Ocalan this time, with lawyer Ozgur Erol, following the recent death of veteran Turkish peacemaker Sirri Sureyya Onder.
Onder, who was Turkiye’s deputy parliamentary speaker, died on May 3, after suffering a cardiac arrest and just days before the PKK’s historic decision.
He had spent years trying to end the conflict with Turkiye’s Kurdish minority in efforts that earned respect from across the political spectrum.
Since December, he had been part of a delegation that visited Ocalan several times, shuttling messages between him and Turkiye’s political establishment and paving the way for the PKK move.
“I had a hankering to speak to Sirri Sureyya Onder one last time,” Ocalan wrote, describing him as “a wise person for Turkiye” and saying he left behind “a cherished memory that we need to keep alive.”
The government has said it will carefully monitor the disarmament process and in turn, observers expect the government to show a new openness to the Kurds who make up about 20 percent of the 85 million population.
Ocalan is unlikely to be freed, as his life would likely come under threat, but the conditions of his imprisonment are likely to be “eased,” officials say.


Israel says it will allow a limited amount of aid into Gaza after nearly 3 months of blockade

Updated 18 May 2025
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Israel says it will allow a limited amount of aid into Gaza after nearly 3 months of blockade

  • Israel is pressuring Hamas to agree to a temporary ceasefire that would free hostages from Gaza but not necessarily end the war

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israel says it will allow a limited amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza after a nearly three-month blockade to avoid a “hunger crisis,” after global experts on food crises warned of famine.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday his Cabinet approved a decision to allow a “basic” amount of food into the territory of over 2 million people. Israel imposed a complete blockade on humanitarian aid starting March 2.
Netanyahu said allowing some aid in would enable Israel to expand its new military operation, which began Saturday.
It was not immediately clear when aid would enter Gaza, or how. Netanyahu said Israel would work to ensure that Hamas will not control aid distribution and ensure the aid does not reach Hamas militants.
Earlier on Sunday, Israel launched “extensive” new ground operations in Gaza. Airstrikes in its new offensive killed at least 103 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said. The bombardment forced northern Gaza’s main hospital to close as it reported direct strikes.
Israel began the offensive — the largest since it shattered a ceasefire in March — with the aim of seizing territory and displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Israel is pressuring Hamas to agree to a temporary ceasefire that would free hostages from Gaza but not necessarily end the war. Hamas says it wants a full withdrawal of Israeli forces and a path to ending the war as part of any deal.
“When the Jews want a truce, Hamas refuses, and when Hamas wants a truce, the Jews refuse it. Both sides agree to exterminate the Palestinian people,” said Jabaliya resident Abu Mohammad Yassin, who was among those fleeing the new offensive on foot or in donkey carts. “For God’s sake, have mercy on us. We are tired of displacement.”
Israel’s military, which recently called up tens of thousands of reservists, said the ground operations are throughout the Palestinian territory’s north and south. Israel’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said that plans include “dissecting” the strip.
Before the announcement, airstrikes killed more than 48 people — including 18 children and 13 women — in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, which said it struggled to count the dead because of the condition of bodies.
In northern Gaza, a strike on a home in Jabaliya killed nine members of a family, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency services. Another strike on a residence there killed 10, including seven children and a woman, according to the civil defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government.
Israel’s military had no immediate comment. Its statement announcing the ground operations said preliminary strikes over the past week killed dozens of militants and struck more than 670 targets. Israel blames civilian casualties on Hamas because the militant group operates from civilian areas.
Shortly afterward, Israel’s military said that it intercepted a projectile from central Gaza and another fell in an open area, with no injuries reported.
Talks in Qatar
Israel had said it would wait until the end of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East before launching its offensive, saying it was giving ceasefire efforts a chance. Trump didn’t visit Israel on his trip that ended Friday.
Netanyahu’s office said his negotiating team in Qatar was “working to realize every chance for a deal,” including one that would end fighting in exchange for the release of all remaining 58 hostages, Hamas’ exile from Gaza and the disarmament of the territory.
Hamas has refused to leave Gaza or disarm.
Israel ended the previous eight-week ceasefire in March. Gaza’s Health Ministry has said almost 3,000 people have been killed since then.
Days before resuming the war, Israel cut off all food, medicine and other supplies to Gaza. The blockade is now in its third month, with global food security experts warning of famine across the territory.
Frustration in Israel has been rising. A small but growing number of Israelis are refusing to show up for military service, even risking imprisonment. Other Israelis have been displaying photos of children killed in Gaza during weekly rallies demanding a deal to free all hostages and end the war.
The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
Hospital cites Israeli ‘siege’
Health officials said fighting around the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and an Israeli military “siege” prompted it to shut down. It was the main medical facility in the north after Israeli strikes last year forced the Kamal Adwan and Beit Hanoun hospitals to stop offering services.
“There is direct targeting on the hospital, including the intensive care unit,” Indonesian Hospital director Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan said in a statement, adding that no one could reach the facility that had about 30 patients and 15 medical staff inside.
Israel’s military said that troops were operating against militant infrastructure sites in northern Gaza, including the area “directly adjacent” to the hospital.
Israel has repeatedly targeted hospitals, accusing Hamas of being active in and around the facilities. Human rights groups and UN-backed experts have accused Israel of systematically destroying Gaza’s health care system.
In northern Gaza, at least 43 people were killed in strikes, according to first responders from the Health Ministry and civil defense. Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital said 15 children and 12 women were among the dead.
A drone strike Sunday afternoon killed at least seven Palestinians near a school sheltering displaced people northwest of Gaza City, according to the Health Ministry’s emergency service.
Other strikes in central Gaza killed at least 12 people, hospitals said. One in Zweida town killed seven people, including two children and four women, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir Al-Balah.
In Gaza City, Um Mahmoud Al-Aloul lay across the shrouded body of her daughter, Nour Al-Aloul.
“You took my soul with you,” she cried. “I used to turn off my phone from how much you called.”


Egypt recovers antiquities smuggled to Australia: ministry

Updated 18 May 2025
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Egypt recovers antiquities smuggled to Australia: ministry

  • Officials say Egypt has successfully retrieved around 30,000 smuggled artefacts over the past decade

CAIRO: Egypt’s antiquities ministry said Sunday it had retrieved 21 artefacts, including a funerary figurine and an eye of Horus amulet, that had been smuggled illegally to Australia.
Most of the items had been “on display at a renowned auction house in Australia, before it became clear that there were no proper ownership documents,” Supreme Council of Antiquities chief Mohamed Ismail Khaled said.
The collection, which also included a fragment of a wooden sarcophagus, was handed over to the Egyptian embassy in Canberra.
Officials did not say how or when the pieces had been smuggled out of the country.
Such thefts are not uncommon, however.
During the 2011 uprising that ousted Egypt’s longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, looters ransacked museums and archaeological sites, spiriting away thousands of priceless pieces.
Many of the stolen artefacts later appeared on the international market or ended up in private collections.
Officials say Egypt has successfully retrieved around 30,000 smuggled artefacts over the past decade.
Six years ago, the country’s embassy in Australia also received a long-lost fourth and final part of a stone stela dating back to the fourth century BC.
The stela, or information slab, disappeared from an excavation site in Luxor in 1995.
Known as the Sheshn Nerfertem stela, it was smuggled in pieces to Switzerland, from where three pieces were repatriated in 2017.
The now-complete stela, and the artefacts repatriated from Australia, are now “at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir for restoration in preparation for display in a temporary exhibition,” the antiquities ministry said.


Beirut’s choice: Prime minister urges citizens to shape their city’s future

PM Nawaf Salam inspected the central operations room overseeing the electoral process at the Ministry of Interior.
Updated 18 May 2025
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Beirut’s choice: Prime minister urges citizens to shape their city’s future

  • Fierce contest as Lebanon holds the third round of municipal and mayoral elections

BEIRUT: Lebanon held the third round of municipal and mayoral elections on Sunday.

Sunday’s vote was held in the governorates of Beirut, Bekaa, and Baalbek-Hermel.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam inspected the central operations room overseeing the electoral process at the Ministry of Interior and across various electoral centers in Beirut.

Defense Minister Michel Menassa and Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar accompanied him.

After casting his ballot in Beirut, Salam said that the elections provided an opportunity for citizens to express their true wishes for the city and voiced hope for a high voter turnout.

He stated that the people of Beirut should not miss the chance to decide what kind of city they want.

“I urge them to participate in the elections in large numbers.”

Salam affirmed that the people of Beirut “are capable of ensuring representation for everyone in the municipal council.”

He said that the new municipal council is not obligated to support the government’s efforts; instead, it is the government’s responsibility to meet all the needs of the people of Beirut.

He added: “This is a developmental choice par excellence.”

In an afternoon appeal, Salam repeated his call for voters to cast their ballots, stating that the voter turnout in Beirut remained low.

MPs supporting the parties’ list in Beirut expressed concern about the low turnout during the day.

Security and military forces deployed personnel to assure the safety of polling stations and the routes leading to them.

The Lebanese Army Command announced that an army unit in Baalbek and the Douris area arrested four people found in possession of combat pistols, a quantity of hashish, and captagon pills.

In an official statement, the Army Command warned citizens “against creating trouble, firing guns, and endangering the lives of others.”

It also suspended “all gun licenses in the governorates where elections are being held for 48 hours,” stressing that it “will not hesitate to pursue and arrest all those who disrupt security across all Lebanese territory.”

During the voting process, Israeli reconnaissance planes flew over Beirut.

As the southern governorates and Nabatieh prepare for the final round of parliamentary elections on Sunday, an Israeli drone targeted a Rapid car on Sunday on Beit Yahoun Road near a Lebanese army checkpoint, wounding the driver and a soldier manning the checkpoint.

Sunday’s elections were described as “fierce,” with intense competition between political party lists and civil society.

Voters extensively crossing out party candidates cast doubt on the parties’ ability to maintain public support and raised concerns over Beirut’s ability to uphold its model of coexistence.

For example, Sunni voters were striking off Shiite candidates affiliated with Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, as well as Christian candidates affiliated with the Lebanese Forces and their allies.

The capital experienced intense competition between two main lists: the “Beirut Unites Us” list, which includes candidates from political parties with significant discord, under the slogan “Preserving Equal Representation of Muslims and Christians,” and the “Beirut Madinati” list, supported by Change deputies.

The Forces of Change is a parliamentary bloc that comprises multiple reformist parties and independent MPs.

Other lists were also running in the electoral race.

They include a list of candidates affiliated with the Future Movement, which suspended its political activity, and candidates of the Islamic Group, as well as other civilian lists.

The civilian voter turnout remained low until 2 p.m., not exceeding 13 percent.

Voters affiliated with Hezbollah, the Amal Movement, and the Al-Ahbash Association were expected to arrive at polling centers in groups before voting concluded at 7 p.m., aiming to tip the balance in favor of their party list.

Abu Al-Abed Al-Nuri, a voter in one of the Al-Mazraa electoral centers, said that “he composed his list by himself, choosing only Sunni candidates.

“All parties have wronged Beirut and caused disastrous consequences; however, they have now united and insist on sharing the benefits while ignoring our demands and problems,” he added.

MP Fouad Makhzoumi said: “We are trying to impose equal representation in voting.”

MP Hagop Terzian from the Free Patriotic Movement bloc stated: “Parties are not from Mars; they are part of Beirut and have allied to ensure equal representation.”

Hezbollah MP Amin Sherri said: “We insist on equal representation. Cross-outs are Beirut’s enemy.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea urged voters in Beirut to support the parties’ list “because the elections in Beirut reflect on coexistence in Lebanon, as it is the capital that represents the country’s main face.”

Competition for municipal seats was also fierce in the Bekaa, particularly in Zahle and Baalbek, raising voter turnout to 30 and 40 percent during the day.

Several people, including two members of the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch, were injured in Zahle during a raid conducted by a patrol from the branch, supported by a Lebanese Army unit, on a Hezbollah electoral office in the area on suspicion of bribery.

Around 15 young men were present at the site during the raid.

The permits of several representatives for the non-partisan Change list in the city of Baalbek disappeared.

It was revealed that the person who hid the permits — and who was arrested by the security forces — was working for the Hezbollah list in the area.


At least 3 killed in blast targeting police station in eastern Syria

Updated 18 May 2025
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At least 3 killed in blast targeting police station in eastern Syria

CAIRO: At least three people were killed when a blast targeted a police station in the eastern Syrian town of Al-Mayadeen on Sunday, the state news agency said, citing a security source.
The explosion also injured several people, the report said, without providing further details.