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Yemen Envoy Ould Cheikh Resumes Talks after Getting Term Extension

UN envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed speaks to reporters in Sana’a, Yemen on November 7, 2016. (Reuters)
UN envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed speaks to reporters in Sana’a, Yemen on November 7, 2016. (Reuters)
    Cairo, London, New York - Sawsan Abu Hussein and Asharq Al-Awsat
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Yemen Envoy Ould Cheikh Resumes Talks after Getting Term Extension

UN envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed speaks to reporters in Sana’a, Yemen on November 7, 2016. (Reuters)
UN envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed speaks to reporters in Sana’a, Yemen on November 7, 2016. (Reuters)

United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed will commence a new round of consultations in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman aimed at finding the basis for resuming negotiations between the Yemeni government and Houthi and Saleh insurgents to reach a comprehensive settlement for the crisis, diplomatic sources affirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat.

Another Arab diplomat meanwhile revealed that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres extended the term of Ould Cheikh for six months.

Ould Cheikh will start his round of talks once he returns from New York where he was participating in the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly.

Sources stressed that talks will kick off from outcomes of the national dialogue, Gulf initiative, the related UN Security Council resolutions and Arab Summits on Yemen.

Talks will also tackle the suggested date to start negotiations between the crisis parties in Yemen. It has been proposed to hold the talks in October in either Kuwait or Oman, said the sources.

Ould Cheikh reiterated, as reported by Sky News Arabia, that the humanitarian situation in Yemen has become catastrophic, holding all parties are responsible for it. He added that although the crisis is humanitarian, its resolution is political.

Kuwait Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al Sabah said during his speech at the General Assembly that his country has exerted relentless efforts to settle the conflict in Yemen peacefully.

Moreover, Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit met Ould Cheikh on the sidelines of the General Assembly to discuss the latter’s contacts with international, regional and Yemeni parties related to the crisis.

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Arab World

UN Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen Resigns

FILE - Geir Pedersen, the United Nations' special envoy to Syria, speaks to journalists in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)
FILE - Geir Pedersen, the United Nations' special envoy to Syria, speaks to journalists in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)
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UN Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen Resigns

FILE - Geir Pedersen, the United Nations' special envoy to Syria, speaks to journalists in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)
FILE - Geir Pedersen, the United Nations' special envoy to Syria, speaks to journalists in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)

The United Nations special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, unexpectedly resigned on Thursday after almost seven years as the organization's representative to the war-torn country.

"I wish to let the council know that I have informed the secretary-general of my intention to step down after more than six-and-a-half years serving as United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, and he has graciously accepted my request," Pedersen told a meeting of the UN Security Council on Syria.

"It has been my intention for quite some time to move on for personal reasons after a long period of service," Pedersen told the 15-member council. "My experience in Syria has affirmed an enduring truth - that sometimes it's darkest before the dawn. For so long, progress seemed absolutely impossible, until suddenly it came."

Syrian president Bashar Assad was ousted in December.

"Few have endured suffering as profound as the Syrians, and few have demonstrated such resilience and determination," Pedersen said.

"Today, Syria and the Syrian people have a new dawn, and we must ensure that this becomes a bright day. They deserve this so much," he added.

“Being a special envoy for any conflict, let alone one that we Syrians know, is no easy job," Syria's UN Ambassador Ibrahim Olabi told the Security Council, adding that Pedersen "departs on a note of hope, on a success story."

He said Syria looks forward to "engaging with the Secretary-General and all of you in working with his successor in a way that preserves Syrian sovereignty and fulfills the aspiration of the Syrian people."

Arab World

Gunman Kills 2 at Israeli-run Crossing between West Bank, Jordan

Israeli police officers stand next to their cars at the scene of a fatal shooting at the Allenby Crossing between the Israeli-Occupied West Bank and Jordan, September 18, 2025. REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon
Israeli police officers stand next to their cars at the scene of a fatal shooting at the Allenby Crossing between the Israeli-Occupied West Bank and Jordan, September 18, 2025. REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon
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Gunman Kills 2 at Israeli-run Crossing between West Bank, Jordan

Israeli police officers stand next to their cars at the scene of a fatal shooting at the Allenby Crossing between the Israeli-Occupied West Bank and Jordan, September 18, 2025. REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon
Israeli police officers stand next to their cars at the scene of a fatal shooting at the Allenby Crossing between the Israeli-Occupied West Bank and Jordan, September 18, 2025. REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon

A gunman killed two people at an Israeli-run border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan on Thursday, officials said.

The Israeli military referred to it as a militant attack and said that the shooter arrived on a truck transporting humanitarian aid. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said that two men, around 60 and 20 years old, were killed. The military said the attacker had been “neutralized," without elaborating, The AP news reported

Three Israelis were killed in a September 2024 attack at the crossing, when a retired Jordanian soldier opened fire. That attack appeared to be linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The Allenby Bridge Crossing over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is mainly used by Palestinians and tourists. It was closed after the attack.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for a future state. Violence has surged across the occupied West Bank since the Hamas-led attack from Gaza into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the latest war.

Israel is waging a major ground offensive in Gaza City that has forced nearly 250,000 Palestinians to flee, according to the United Nations. Hundreds of thousands remain in the city, large parts of which have already been destroyed in previous Israeli raids.

Arab World

Israel Says it Attacked Hezbollah Targets in South Lebanon

A picture taken from northern Israel along the border with southern Lebanon shows smoke billowing above south Lebanon during Israeli bombardment on October 4, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
A picture taken from northern Israel along the border with southern Lebanon shows smoke billowing above south Lebanon during Israeli bombardment on October 4, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
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Israel Says it Attacked Hezbollah Targets in South Lebanon

A picture taken from northern Israel along the border with southern Lebanon shows smoke billowing above south Lebanon during Israeli bombardment on October 4, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
A picture taken from northern Israel along the border with southern Lebanon shows smoke billowing above south Lebanon during Israeli bombardment on October 4, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

Israel said on Thursday it had launched fresh airstrikes against Hezbollah military targets in south Lebanon to stop the group rebuilding in the area.

Israel's military confirmed in a statement that unspecified attacks were underway after earlier saying it would hit Hezbollah military infrastructure "in response to the group’s unlawful attempts to rebuild its activities in the area."

It warned residents of three villages to evacuate.

"We direct an urgent warning to the residents of the buildings marked in red... to evacuate those buildings," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Colonel Avichay Adraee wrote on X. He provided maps of the three Lebanese villages of Mays al-Jabal, Kfar Tebnit and Dibbine.

Lebanon's state news agency NNA confirmed strikes in the area. There was no immediate reaction from Hezbollah, or word on any damage or casualties.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the evacuation warning contradicted international peace efforts.

Lebanon's government was committed to halting hostilities and engaged in meetings to ensure implementation of a UN resolution that ended a round of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, Salam said in a post on X.

The US brokered a truce in November between Lebanon and Israel after more than a year of conflict sparked by the war in Gaza, but Israel has continued sporadically to attack Hezbollah across the border.

Lebanon is under pressure to disarm the group.

Hezbollah has said it would be a serious misstep even to discuss disarmament while Israel is continuing airstrikes on Lebanon and occupying swaths of territory in its south.