Yemeni FM: Houthi Immoral Aggression Continues

A Houthi boat in the Red Sea, where the group controls Hodeidah ports (EPA)
A Houthi boat in the Red Sea, where the group controls Hodeidah ports (EPA)
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Yemeni FM: Houthi Immoral Aggression Continues

A Houthi boat in the Red Sea, where the group controls Hodeidah ports (EPA)
A Houthi boat in the Red Sea, where the group controls Hodeidah ports (EPA)

Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak affirmed on Thursday that the Houthi aggression in Yemen continues "using immoral methods," accusing the group of thwarting peace efforts.

Bin Mubarak referred to the economic war the group was waging by targeting financial capabilities, facilities, and oil tankers with Iranian drones, which halted oil exports.

The Yemeni government seeks diplomatic support for its legitimate position.

Speaking to diplomats at the Hungarian Academy on the sidelines of his visit to Budapest, the Yemeni minister said that the ongoing conflict in Yemen runs between a group represented by a legitimate government seeking to preserve their freedom and basic rights and liberate their land and an aggressive sectarian Iran-backed militia seeking to establish a repressive, tyrannical regime.

Saba reported that bin Mubarak met Arab ambassadors and discussed with them the recent political developments in his country and the negative attitude of the Houthi militia towards efforts to achieve peace.

Official media reported that bin Mubarak touched on Iranian interference in Yemen affairs, Tehran's establishment of sectarian militias, and its attempts to replace sects with states and militias instead of armies to achieve its expansionist ambitions.

He indicated that the group is pressuring businessmen in areas under its control to stop importing through Aden Port.

They want to prevent the distribution of subsidized gas extracted from Maerib in areas still under militia control and replace it with Iranian gas, to be sold for Houthis' benefit.

The FM discussed the negative and non-constructive position of the Houthi militia towards the peace process, accusing it of thwarting efforts aimed at stopping the war and ending its disastrous humanitarian repercussions.

- Economic decline

Meanwhile, the Yemeni government suffers from severe economic conditions due to the cessation of oil exports because of Houthi attacks, amid fears of a resumption of battles.

The Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Waed Bathib, said before The UN High-Level Political Forum in New York City that the crisis is worsening in Yemen.

He explained that 60 percent of the population suffers from food insecurity and 80 percent needs humanitarian assistance, adding that about 4.3 million people have been displaced.

Bathib pointed to the high external indebtedness in his country and the economy's contraction by more than 50 percent of the GDP, pointing to the decline in public revenues, the rise in poverty to about 80 percent, and the worsening financial situation as a result of the Houthi militia's targeting of oil export ports by drones.

Furthermore, the head of the Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, confirmed that progress had yet to be made to renew the truce and launch peace talks, despite the UN, international, and regional efforts.

Alimi accused Houthis of seeking to perpetuate chaos and starve Yemenis in all regions.

The Houthis have threatened to attack oil export ports and target cargo ships if the legitimate government resumes exports.

The militias rejected international and regional proposals to renew and expand the truce and agree on coordinated steps to pay the salaries of public employees.



An Israeli Strike that Killed 3 Lebanese Journalists Was Most Likely Deliberate

A destroyed journalists car is seen at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency, in Hasbaya village, southeast Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP)
A destroyed journalists car is seen at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency, in Hasbaya village, southeast Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP)
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An Israeli Strike that Killed 3 Lebanese Journalists Was Most Likely Deliberate

A destroyed journalists car is seen at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency, in Hasbaya village, southeast Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP)
A destroyed journalists car is seen at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency, in Hasbaya village, southeast Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP)

An Israeli airstrike that killed three journalists and wounded others in Lebanon last month was most likely a deliberate attack on civilians and an apparent war crime, an international human rights group said Monday.
The Oct. 25 airstrike killed three journalists as they slept at a guesthouse in southeast Lebanon in one of the deadliest attacks on the media since the Israel-Hezbollah war began 13 months ago.
Eleven other journalists have been killed and eight wounded since then, Lebanon's Health Minister Firass Abiad said.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, and women and children accounted for more than 900 of the dead, according to the Health Ministry. More than 1 million people have been displaced since Israeli ground troops invaded while Hezbollah has been firing thousands of rockets, drones and missiles into Israel - and drawing fierce Israeli retaliatory strikes.
Human Rights Watch determined that Israeli forces carried out the Oct. 25 attack using an air-dropped bomb equipped with a US produced Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, guidance kit.
The group said the US government should suspend weapons transfers to Israel because of the military´s repeated "unlawful attacks on civilians, for which US officials may be complicit in war crimes."
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the report.
The Biden administration said in May that Israel’s use of US-provided weapons in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law but that wartime conditions prevented US officials from determining that for certain in specific airstrikes.
The journalists killed in the airstrike in the southeastern town of Hasbaya were camera operator Ghassan Najjar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida of the Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV, and camera operator Wissam Qassim, who worked for Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV.
Human Rights Watch said a munition struck the single-story building and detonated upon hitting the floor.
"Israel’s use of US arms to unlawfully attack and kill journalists away from any military target is a terrible mark on the United States as well as Israel," said Richard Weir, the senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Weir added that "the Israeli military’s previous deadly attacks on journalists without any consequences give little hope for accountability in this or future violations against the media."
Human Rights Watch said that it found remnants at the site and reviewed photographs of pieces collected by the resort owner and determined that they were consistent with a JDAM guidance kit assembled and sold by the US company Boeing.

The JDAM is affixed to air-dropped bombs and allows them to be guided to a target by using satellite coordinates, making the weapon accurate to within several meters, the group said.
In November 2023, two journalists for Al-Mayadeen TV were killed in a drone strike at their reporting spot. A month earlier, Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and seriously wounded other journalists from France´s international news agency Agence France-Presse and Qatar´s Al-Jazeera TV on a hilltop not far from the Israeli border.