Yemen Urges Firm Action Against Houthis to Resume Oil Exports

Houthis aboard a vehicle in one of the streets of Sanaa, Yemen  (EPA)
Houthis aboard a vehicle in one of the streets of Sanaa, Yemen (EPA)
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Yemen Urges Firm Action Against Houthis to Resume Oil Exports

Houthis aboard a vehicle in one of the streets of Sanaa, Yemen  (EPA)
Houthis aboard a vehicle in one of the streets of Sanaa, Yemen (EPA)

The Yemeni government is calling on the international community to take firm stances and measures against the Houthi group. It also urged efforts to resume oil exports, which have been halted for a year due to Houthi attacks on export ports.

This call from the Yemeni government comes at a time when the Houthi group continues to violate the ceasefire, particularly in southwestern Taiz fronts.

This is happening concurrently with suppression campaigns targeting those demanding their salaries in areas under Houthi control.

With over 80% of Yemenis enduring dire circumstances due to the ongoing war and Houthi insurgency, the government emphasized, during its address to the 54th session of the Human Rights Council, the necessity of enabling it to resume oil exports.

This would allow the government to fulfill its urgent financial obligations to its citizens, including paying salaries that support the population in coping with challenging living conditions and financing food imports into both government-controlled areas and Houthi-run regions.

Nabil Abdulhafiz, the Deputy Minister of Human Rights in the Yemeni government, reaffirmed the support for the National Committee to investigate allegations of human rights violations.

The committee is regarded as an independent national mechanism that efficiently and independently carries out its work, receiving all necessary facilitations and cooperation to uncover the truth, achieve accountability, justice, and provide reparations to victims.

The Yemeni government called upon the members of the Human Rights Council to address the human rights situation in Yemen.

The appeal stems from Yemen’s need for support, technical assistance, and capacity-building to enable the government to meet its human rights commitments.

The government is also seeking to encourage and support the committee in continuing its mission to ensure accountability and justice.

Moreover, Abdulhafiz said that recent steps taken in reshaping the Supreme Judicial Council are evidence of the Presidential Leadership Council’s commitment to achieving justice and revitalizing its institutions.

Abdulhafiz further noted that his country’s government “remains committed to the humanitarian ceasefire and the execution of all its provisions, while militias continue to defy their obligations, including opening crossings and roads between all Yemeni cities and lifting the siege on the city of Taiz.”

The Yemeni official accused the Houthi group of persistently violating and attacking civilians and displacement camps in areas such as Marib, Al-Dhale, Hodeidah, and Taiz.

These provocations manifest in their military build-up, parades, threats, and the unlawful use of military force.

Abdulhafiz urged the international community and the Human Rights Council to press the Houthi militias to cease their violations, halt their looting of Yemeni resources, and cease targeting vital facilities and infrastructure.



Israel’s Death Penalty Law Perpetuates Racial Discrimination, Says UN Watchdog

Protesters hold placards outside the Red Cross offices in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on March 31, 2026, during a rally against a bill approved by Israel's parliament that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks. (AFP via Getty Images)
Protesters hold placards outside the Red Cross offices in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on March 31, 2026, during a rally against a bill approved by Israel's parliament that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks. (AFP via Getty Images)
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Israel’s Death Penalty Law Perpetuates Racial Discrimination, Says UN Watchdog

Protesters hold placards outside the Red Cross offices in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on March 31, 2026, during a rally against a bill approved by Israel's parliament that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks. (AFP via Getty Images)
Protesters hold placards outside the Red Cross offices in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on March 31, 2026, during a rally against a bill approved by Israel's parliament that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks. (AFP via Getty Images)

Israel's new death penalty law permitting the execution of Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks perpetuates racial discrimination against them, a United Nations committee said Friday, urging its immediate repeal.

The law amounts to a grave erosion of human rights, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said in a statement.

Under the new law, passed by the Israeli parliament in March, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank convicted by military courts of carrying out deadly attacks classified as "terrorism" will face the death penalty as a default sentence.

"The new law is a severe blow to human rights, rolling back Israel's long-standing de facto moratorium on executions since 1962 and expanding the use of the death penalty," the committee said.

The law is "de facto applicable to Palestinians only" and sets a 90-day deadline for executions once a final judgement is rendered, the committee said.

Furthermore, it said Israel should ensure that all Palestinian detainees "are guaranteed their rights to equal treatment before the law, security of person, protection against violence or bodily harm, and access to justice".

The committee also called on Israel to "end all policies and practices that amount to racial discrimination against and segregation of Palestinians".

It said other countries should "ensure that their resources are not used to enforce or support discriminatory policies and practices against Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory".

The committee of 18 independent experts monitors adherence to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its 182 states parties.

Under the convention, which came into force in 1969, countries must eliminate racial discrimination, eradicate practices of segregation and guarantee equality before the law without distinction as to race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin.

Israel ratified the convention in 1979.

In March, UN rights chief Volker Turk branded Israel's new law "cruel and discriminatory", warning that applying it in occupied Palestinian territory "would constitute a war crime".

Israel has only applied the death penalty twice: in 1948, shortly after the state's founding, against a military captain accused of high treason, and then in 1962, when the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was hanged.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence in the territory has soared since Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.


Israeli Authorities Taking 2 Activists Who Led a Gaza-Bound Flotilla to Israel for Questioning

Protesters hold Palestinian flags during a demonstration to condemn the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla by the Israeli army, in Turin on April 30, 2026. (Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP)
Protesters hold Palestinian flags during a demonstration to condemn the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla by the Israeli army, in Turin on April 30, 2026. (Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP)
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Israeli Authorities Taking 2 Activists Who Led a Gaza-Bound Flotilla to Israel for Questioning

Protesters hold Palestinian flags during a demonstration to condemn the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla by the Israeli army, in Turin on April 30, 2026. (Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP)
Protesters hold Palestinian flags during a demonstration to condemn the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla by the Israeli army, in Turin on April 30, 2026. (Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP)

Israeli authorities say they are taking two activists who led an aid flotilla bound for Gaza — and who were captured by Israel in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea — to Israel for questioning. 

The activists, Palestinian-Spanish citizen Saif Abukeshek and Brazilian citizen Thiago Ávila, were among dozens of activists intercepted by the Israeli navy off the coast of Crete. They are members the Global Sumud Flotilla's steering committee, whose mission was to break Israel's naval blockade and bring some humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory. 

In all, some 20 boats and 175 activists were intercepted by the Israeli navy. Activists said Israeli forces stormed their vessels, smashed engines and detained some of those onboard. The incident occurred hundreds of miles (kilometers) from Gaza and Israel overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. 

Israeli officials said they needed to take early action against the flotilla before it reached Israeli waters because of the high number of boats involved. 

On Friday the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on X that it was taking the two activists to Israel for questioning, and that Abukeshek was “suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organization” and Ávila was “suspected of illegal activity," without providing evidence. 

The Global Sumud Flotilla appealed for international support. “We demand that all governments do all they can to pressure the Israeli regime to release all the illegal abductees," the group said Friday. 

The rest of the flotilla participants were released in Crete late Thursday. Of the 53 vessels that had been sailing prior to the interception, 31 reached safe waters and would continue their attempts to “break the illegal siege of Gaza," organizers said. 

The flotilla set sail earlier this month from Barcelona, Spain. Organizers have said more than 70 boats and 1,000 people from around the world would be participating, with more vessels joining the original boats as the flotilla sailed east across the Mediterranean. 

The Greek foreign ministry said Thursday that it had asked Israel to withdraw its ships from the area and had offered its “good services” for the activists to disembark in Greece and be repatriated. 

Protests in solidarity with the flotilla erupted across several capitals including Rome, Athens and Istanbul. 

Spain and Brazil have not yet commented on the detention and transfer to Israel of Abukeshek and Ávila. But they said in a joint statement with several other nations late Thursday that Israel's interception of the flotilla and detention of the activists in international waters “constitute flagrant violations of international law and international humanitarian law." 

The flotilla’s latest attempt to reach Gaza comes less than a year after Israeli authorities foiled a previous effort by the group. That attempt involved about 50 vessels and around 500 activists, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, and several lawmakers. 

Israel arrested, detained and later deported the participants, including Ávila, who claimed Israeli authorities abused them while in detention. Israeli authorities denied the accusations. 


Trump Congratulates Zaidi on His Nomination to Be Next Iraqi Prime Minister

This handout photograph taken and released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's Press Office on April 28, 2026 shows new prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi talking on the phone at his office in Baghdad. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office /AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's Press Office on April 28, 2026 shows new prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi talking on the phone at his office in Baghdad. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office /AFP)
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Trump Congratulates Zaidi on His Nomination to Be Next Iraqi Prime Minister

This handout photograph taken and released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's Press Office on April 28, 2026 shows new prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi talking on the phone at his office in Baghdad. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office /AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's Press Office on April 28, 2026 shows new prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi talking on the phone at his office in Baghdad. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office /AFP)

US President Donald Trump congratulated Ali al-Zaidi on his nomination to be next prime minister of Iraq on Thursday, saying that he looked forward to a highly productive new relationship.

Iraq's alliance of Shiite political blocs, the Coordination Framework, on Monday named Zaidi as its ‌nominee for the ‌post of prime minister, a ‌coalition ⁠statement said.

"We wish ⁠him success as he works to form a new Government free from terrorism that could deliver a brighter future for Iraq," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

"We look ⁠forward to a strong, vibrant, ‌and highly ‌productive new relationship between Iraq and the United ‌States."

Trump also invited Zaidi to visit ‌Washington after forming a government during a phone call on Thursday in which he congratulated him on his nomination, according to ‌a statement from the Iraqi prime minister's media office.

The call reviewed ⁠strategic ⁠ties between Iraq and the US and ways to strengthen cooperation across multiple fields, the statement said, adding that both sides affirmed joint efforts to support regional stability.

Trump had threatened in January to withdraw Washington's support for Iraq if former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was designated to form a cabinet.