Houthis Claim Responsibility for Attack on Israel

Mock Houthi-made drones and missiles are set up at a square, in Sanaa, Yemen, 31 October 2023. (EPA)
Mock Houthi-made drones and missiles are set up at a square, in Sanaa, Yemen, 31 October 2023. (EPA)
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Houthis Claim Responsibility for Attack on Israel

Mock Houthi-made drones and missiles are set up at a square, in Sanaa, Yemen, 31 October 2023. (EPA)
Mock Houthi-made drones and missiles are set up at a square, in Sanaa, Yemen, 31 October 2023. (EPA)

The Iran-backed Houthi militias officially claimed on Tuesday missile and drone attacks targeting Israel.

This marks the first time the militias claim attacks that American and Israeli forces previously said had been launched from the southern Red Sea region.

In a televised statement, Houthi military spokesman Yehya Saree claimed that the militias “launched a large batch of ballistic missiles and a large number of drones at various targets of the Israeli enemy.”

“This operation is the third operation in support of our oppressed brothers in Palestine and confirm that we will continue to carry out more qualitative strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops,” he added.

Israel said on Tuesday its fighter jets and its new Arrow missile defense system shot down two salvos of incoming fire hours apart as it approached the country's key Red Sea shipping port of Eilat.

The missile fire sparked a rare air raid siren alarm to go off in Eilat, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Jerusalem, sending people fleeing into shelters.

Days ago, American, Israeli and Egyptian media had reported on a mysterious explosion Thursday that hit the Egyptian resort town of Taba, near the border with Israel. The blast wounded six people. The reports said the attack had been launched from the southern Red Sea.

For Israel, Tuesday's attack marked an incredibly rare reported in-combat use of the Arrow missile defense system, which intercepts long-range ballistic missiles with a warhead designed to destroy targets while they are in space, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“All aerial threats were intercepted outside of Israeli territory,” the Israeli military said. “No infiltrations were identified into Israeli territory.”

Observers and analysts question the efficiency of the Houthi missiles and drones, accusing the militias of exploiting the developments in Gaza to gain sympathy among the Yemeni people.

Houthi leader Abdulmalek al-Houthi had previously claimed that his group would join the war on Gaza if the US directly became involved by siding with Israel.

The Yemeni people dismissed and mocked the Houthis’ “false heroics”, demanding that they instead focus their attention on the suffering in Yemen, not Palestine, lifting the siege on Taiz city and ending the violations on the ground.

The Houthis have previously threatened to attack marine routes in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

They have also exploited the conflict in Gaza to impose more tariffs on the people, who have been plunged into poverty because of the militias’ practices, including the withholding of wages of public sector employees for seven years.

The Houthis have called on the people to make donations for the people in Gaza, prompting the ire of Yemenis who can barely make ends meet because of the Houthi practices that have led to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country.



Sudanese Stakeholders Hold Roundtable Talks in Geneva

A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
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Sudanese Stakeholders Hold Roundtable Talks in Geneva

A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)

Geneva has hosted a third “roundtable” of meetings involving Sudanese political and civil groups aimed at bridging the gap between the country’s warring parties. These talks, coordinated by the French organization Promediation, follow similar meetings held previously in Cairo and Geneva. The primary goals are to negotiate a ceasefire and facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians.

The two-day meetings, which began on Monday, include representatives from the Coordination of Democratic Civil Forces (Tagadum), the pro-army Democratic Bloc coalition, and armed movements aligned with the bloc. However, some groups have announced their boycott of the meetings.

The Democratic Bloc has shown conflicting stances on attending the Geneva talks. Mohammed Zakaria, spokesperson for the bloc and a member of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), announced his group’s decision not to participate.

Omar Khalafallah, a leader in the Democratic Unionist Party and another bloc spokesperson, refuted Zakaria’s statement, insisting that the bloc would attend the meetings to promote a national vision.

A source within the Democratic Bloc told Asharq Al-Awsat that the meetings revealed significant internal divisions in the coalition. The JEM, led by current Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim, appears to be charting its own course, which the source described as a form of defection.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Sharif Mohammed Osman, a leader in Tagadum and the political secretary of the Sudanese Congress Party, explained that the meetings seek to achieve consensus on ending the war through negotiated solutions, starting with a humanitarian truce to ensure aid delivery and the opening of safe corridors.

These measures are considered preliminary steps toward a ceasefire and a peaceful resolution to the conflict, he underlined.

A wide array of civilian leaders are participating in the talks, including key figures from Tagadum, such as Sudanese Congress Party leader Omar Al-Dukair, Federal Gathering Party leader Babiker Faisal, and head of the Sudan Liberation Movement – Transitional Council Al-Hadi Idris.

Osman expressed optimism that the participants would issue a unified final statement addressing the peaceful resolution of the war and agreeing on a humanitarian truce to facilitate aid delivery.

In October, Cairo hosted a similar meeting, which resulted in a final statement signed by the participating groups, except for the Sudan Liberation Movement – Minni Minnawi faction and the JEM – Jibril Ibrahim faction, which refused to endorse the Cairo declaration despite attending the discussions.

Promediation, a French organization supported by the French and Swiss foreign ministries, has played a consistent role in Sudanese affairs. Since June 2022, it has organized roundtable discussions, initially focusing on negotiations between Darfuri armed movements before expanding its scope to include Sudanese political and civil forces in the wake of the war.