Yemen’s Presidential Council Calls for Comprehensive Strategy to Deter the Houthis

Chairman of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, met in Riyadh with the US Ambassador. (Saba)
Chairman of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, met in Riyadh with the US Ambassador. (Saba)
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Yemen’s Presidential Council Calls for Comprehensive Strategy to Deter the Houthis

Chairman of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, met in Riyadh with the US Ambassador. (Saba)
Chairman of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, met in Riyadh with the US Ambassador. (Saba)

In light of mounting Houthi threats, the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council stressed that deterring the pro-Iranian group requires a comprehensive local, regional and international strategy.
For his part, US Ambassador to Yemen Steven Fagin affirmed Washington’s support for the Yemeni government to strengthen its legal powers. This came during separate meetings and communications he held with the Chairman of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, and members of the Council, Aidaroos Al-Zubaidi, Tariq Saleh, and Othman Majli.
The official media reported that Al-Alimi met in Riyadh with the US Ambassador, and emphasized the need to support the government’s efforts to deter any threat to the state legitimacy, impose control over the entire Yemeni territory, and secure international shipping lines and vital national infrastructure.
According to the agency, the Yemeni official called on the donor community to fulfill its pledges to the humanitarian response plan through the Central Bank of Yemen, accelerate procedures for transferring the headquarters of international organizations and their local partners to the temporary capital, Aden, and strictly adhere to the legal status of the United Nations member state.
Al-Zubaidi, during a video call with Fagin on Wednesday, expressed the readiness of the Presidential Leadership Council to engage in any regional and international efforts aimed at putting an end to the terrorism practiced by the Houthi militias in Yemen and the region, whether by peace or war, while stressing that eliminating the Houthi threat requires cooperation between regional and foreign countries.
Saba quoted the US Ambassador as affirming the US government’s “support for all the measures taken by the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council to strengthen the state’s authority.”
He also stressed that his country was following with great concern the growing Houthi escalation in the international shipping lanes in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab and the Gulf of Aden, and is working side by side with local, regional and international partners to put an end to these threats, according to Saba.
Also, the US embassy’s account on X platform stated that Fagin discussed with member of the Presidential Leadership Council, Tariq Saleh, the continued US support to the Yemeni government, including strengthening cooperation with the Yemeni Coast Guard to enhance maritime security.

 



Erdogan Warns No Place for 'Terrorist' Groups in Syria

This handout photograph taken and released by Turkish Presidency Press Office on January 7, 2025, shows Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani (L) prior to their meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara. (Photo by Turkish Presidency Press Office / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by Turkish Presidency Press Office on January 7, 2025, shows Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani (L) prior to their meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara. (Photo by Turkish Presidency Press Office / AFP)
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Erdogan Warns No Place for 'Terrorist' Groups in Syria

This handout photograph taken and released by Turkish Presidency Press Office on January 7, 2025, shows Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani (L) prior to their meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara. (Photo by Turkish Presidency Press Office / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by Turkish Presidency Press Office on January 7, 2025, shows Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani (L) prior to their meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara. (Photo by Turkish Presidency Press Office / AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said there was no place for "terrorist organizations" in Syria under its new leaders, in a warning regarding Kurdish forces there.

The fall of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad last month raised the prospect of Türkiye intervening in the country against Kurdish forces accused by Ankara of links to armed separatists.

Erdogan's comment came during a meeting in Ankara with the prime minister of Iraq's Kurdish region, Masrour Barzani, the Turkish leader's office said in a statement.

Erdogan told Barzani that Türkiye was working to prevent the ousting of Assad in neighboring Syria from causing new instability in the region.

There is no place for "terrorist organizations or affiliated elements in the future of the new Syria," Erdogan said.

Ankara accuses one leading Kurdish force in Syria, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Türkiye.

The PKK has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state and is banned as a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies.

The Turkish military regularly launches strikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria and neighboring Iraq, accusing them of PKK links.

On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said: "The elimination of the PKK/YPG is only a matter of time."

He cited a call by Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group has long had ties with Türkiye, for the Kurdish-led forces to be integrated into Syria's national army.

The United States has backed the YPG in its fight against ISIS, which has been largely crushed in its former Syrian stronghold.

But Fidan warned that Western countries should not use the threat of IS as "a pretext to strengthen the PKK".