Yemen’s Presidential Council Holds Houthis Responsible for Consequences of Red Sea Attacks 

Dr. al-Alimi chairs the Presidential Leadership Council meeting in Riyadh on Thursday. (Saba)
Dr. al-Alimi chairs the Presidential Leadership Council meeting in Riyadh on Thursday. (Saba)
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Yemen’s Presidential Council Holds Houthis Responsible for Consequences of Red Sea Attacks 

Dr. al-Alimi chairs the Presidential Leadership Council meeting in Riyadh on Thursday. (Saba)
Dr. al-Alimi chairs the Presidential Leadership Council meeting in Riyadh on Thursday. (Saba)

Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council held on Thursday the Iran-backed Houthi militias responsible for the consequences of their attacks against vessels in the Red Sea.

It stressed that the Houthi terrorism was a result of years of the international community abandoning its commitments towards Yemen.

The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting on Wednesday to tackle the attacks. A statement Wednesday signed by the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom gave the Houthis what a senior Biden administration official described as a final warning.

“Let our message now be clear: we call for the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews,” the countries said in the statement. “The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways.”

The US says the Houthis have carried out some 25 attacks on ships in the Red Sea, forcing major shipping companies to reroute their vessels through the Cape of Good Hope.

The Houthis have claimed that their attacks are in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza amid Israel's war on the enclave. The Yemeni government refuted this, saying the Houthis were following an Iranian agenda and avoiding peace efforts in Yemen.

Official Yemeni sources said the Presidential Leadership Council held a meeting in Riyadh to assess the government and local authorities' performance in recent months.

Headed by PLC Chairman Dr. Rashad al-Alimi, the meeting reviewed the economic situation, services in the interim capital Aden and liberated provinces and efforts to stabilize the currency and prices of essential goods.

The meeting discussed the latest Saudi and Omani efforts that led to the adoption of a roadmap aimed at reviving the UN-led peace process, which also calls for ending the Houthi coup against the legitimate government.



Libya's Eastern Parliament Approves Transitional Justice Law in Unity Move, MPs Say

Members of Libyan legislatures known as the High Council of State, based in Tripoli in the country's west, and the House of Representatives, based in Benghazi in the east, meet for talks in Bouznika, Morocco, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Eljechtimi/File Photo
Members of Libyan legislatures known as the High Council of State, based in Tripoli in the country's west, and the House of Representatives, based in Benghazi in the east, meet for talks in Bouznika, Morocco, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Eljechtimi/File Photo
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Libya's Eastern Parliament Approves Transitional Justice Law in Unity Move, MPs Say

Members of Libyan legislatures known as the High Council of State, based in Tripoli in the country's west, and the House of Representatives, based in Benghazi in the east, meet for talks in Bouznika, Morocco, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Eljechtimi/File Photo
Members of Libyan legislatures known as the High Council of State, based in Tripoli in the country's west, and the House of Representatives, based in Benghazi in the east, meet for talks in Bouznika, Morocco, December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Eljechtimi/File Photo

Libya's eastern-based parliament has approved a national reconciliation and transitional justice law, three lawmakers said, a measure aimed at reunifying the oil-producing country after over a decade of factional conflict.

The House of Representatives (HoR) spokesperson, Abdullah Belaihaq, said on the X platform that the legislation was passed on Tuesday by a majority of the session's attendees in Libya's largest second city Benghazi.

However, implementing the law could be challenging as Libya has been divided since a 2014 civil war that spawned two rival administrations vying for power in east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

"I hope that it (the law) will be in effect all over the country and will not face any difficulty," House member Abdulmenam Alorafi told Reuters by phone on Wednesday.

The United Nations mission to Libya has repeatedly called for an inclusive, rights-based transitional justice and reconciliation process in the North African country.

A political process to end years of institutional division and outright warfare has been stalled since an election scheduled for December 2021 collapsed amid disputes over the eligibility of the main candidates.

In Tripoli, there is the Government of National Unity (GNU) under Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah that was installed through a UN-backed process in 2021, but the parliament no longer recognizes its legitimacy. Dbeibah has vowed not to cede power to a new government without national elections.

There are two competing legislative bodies - the HoR that was elected in 2014 as the national parliament with a four-year mandate to oversee a political transition, and the High Council of State in Tripoli formed as part of a 2015 political agreement and drawn from a parliament first elected in 2012.

The Tripoli-based Presidential Council, which came to power with GNU, has been working on a reconciliation project and holding "a comprehensive conference" with the support of the UN and African Union. But it has been unable to bring all rival groups together because of their continuing differences.