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Blinken Set to Return to the Mideast for 5th Time Since Gaza Conflict Began

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on during a press conference held by him and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (not pictured) at the State Department in Washington, U.S., January 29, 2024. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on during a press conference held by him and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (not pictured) at the State Department in Washington, U.S., January 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Blinken Set to Return to the Mideast for 5th Time Since Gaza Conflict Began

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on during a press conference held by him and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (not pictured) at the State Department in Washington, U.S., January 29, 2024. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on during a press conference held by him and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (not pictured) at the State Department in Washington, U.S., January 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East later this week on his fifth urgent diplomatic mission since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October, the White House and a State Department official said Wednesday.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby and the State Department official said Blinken would travel to the Mideast this weekend as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to prepare for post-conflict reconstruction and governance of Gaza, ramp up humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians, release hostages held by Hamas and prevent the war from spreading.

The trip comes as discussions over a cease-fire and hostage release are intensifying, but also as fears grow of a regional conflict.

“These negotiations, our negotiations, are very, very active," Kirby said, noting talks held last weekend between CIA Director William Burns, senior Israeli and Egyptian intelligence officials and Qatar's prime minister. “We believe that the discussions have been productive. They’ve been moving in the right direction.”

He also recalled a recent trip to the Mideast by national security council official Brett McGurk, a call between President Joe Biden and the emir of Qatar, whose country is the chief interlocutor with Hamas, and he said: Blinken “will be heading back over to the region at the end of this week.”

The State Department official said Blinken would be traveling to the Middle East “in the coming days” but could not give exact dates or destinations because the trip was still being planned. On his previous visits, Blinken has stopped in Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Türkiye and Iraq.

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Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
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Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)

In a nearly one-minute video, a young Yemeni man tells how he and his colleagues traveled to Russia on the promise of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering”, but ended up fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
The young man, whose face was covered, expressed with his colleagues their desire to return to Yemen. They said they did not wish to suffer the same fate as their friends and get killed.
Last Sunday, The Financial Times said in a report that Russia’s armed forces have recruited hundreds of Yemeni men to fight in Ukraine, brought by a shadowy trafficking operation that highlights the growing links between Moscow and the Houthi militant group.
Later in video recordings, young Yemeni men spoke about the practice of Houthi smugglers who take advantage of the difficult economic conditions of Yemenis to recruit hundreds of them, and send them to fight alongside Russian troops.
The network of traffickers operate from Yemen and other Arab countries, and coordinate with others within Russian territory.
The Houthi network recruited hundreds of Yemenis and sent them to fight in Russia, according to sources close to their families and others in the Yemeni government.
In one of the videos, a group of Yemeni recruits said they worked in Oman, when a medical equipment company founded by a Houthi politician, Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, lured them by promises of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering” in Russia.
They said they were promised a salary of $2,500 per month. But arriving in Moscow, they were received by a representative from the Russian Defense Ministry who told them they will work as security guards at Russian facilities.
Two days after their arrival, the recruits were sent to camps, where they trained for combat and received a salary of between $185 and $232 a month. They are now calling on the Yemeni government to intervene to return them to their country.
But another Yemeni, Ahmed, who is familiar with a group of recruits, explains that he and his friends had warned these young men not to go to Russia where they risk getting involved in the ongoing war.
The recruits told him that they could escape to Europe and seek asylum as hundreds of Yemenis did before.
However, after arriving with the help of a Houthi-linked medical company, many have apparently been coerced into the Russian military, forced to sign fighting contracts at gunpoint and sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
A member of the Yemeni community in Russia told Asharq Al-Awsat that smugglers are luring Yemeni young men to go to Russia to work for salaries of up to $2,500 per month and are then transferred to Arab capitals, including Muscat, Beirut and Damascus, to be then transferred to Russian territory.
After their arrival, he said, the recruits are taken to weapons training camps, allegedly as employees of a security company. But they are later sent to fight on the front lines with Ukraine along with mercenaries from other nationalities.
Activists and members of the Yemeni community in Russia estimate that there are about 300 young Yemenis who refuse to join the fighting in Ukraine and want to return to their country.
“Those men were tempted by the dire economic conditions in Yemen due to the ongoing war,” the activists said.
A Yemeni recruit of the shadowy trafficking operation said that Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, a prominent Houthi politician, is one of the main recruiters. He is assisted by his brother Abdul Waheed, who was appointed by the group as director of Al-Masrakh districts in Taiz Province.
The recruit said that the group of traffickers includes Hani al-Zarriqi, who has been living in Russia for years, and Mohammed al-Iyani, who lives in a Yemeni neighboring country.
Two relatives of the recruits accuse al-Jabri and his aides of arranging the transfer of the young men from Yemen to a neighboring country, and from there to Moscow, on the pretext of working for private security companies. The traffickers receive a commission of between $10 and $15 thousand per person.