Coalition: Hodeidah Port Is a Threat to Int'l Navigation

Spokesman of the Coalition for the Support of Legitimacy in Yemen, Colonel Turki bin Saleh al-Maliki (SPA)
Spokesman of the Coalition for the Support of Legitimacy in Yemen, Colonel Turki bin Saleh al-Maliki (SPA)
TT
20

Coalition: Hodeidah Port Is a Threat to Int'l Navigation

Spokesman of the Coalition for the Support of Legitimacy in Yemen, Colonel Turki bin Saleh al-Maliki (SPA)
Spokesman of the Coalition for the Support of Legitimacy in Yemen, Colonel Turki bin Saleh al-Maliki (SPA)

In a new development, Coalition for the Support of Legitimacy in Yemen announced on Wednesday that Hodeidah port is not only used for smuggling weapons now, but it has become a starting point to target navigation endangering security and regional and international peace.

Spokesman of the coalition, Colonel Turki bin Saleh al-Maliki said Iran-backed Houthi militias targeted a Saudi oil carrier while it crossed the Red Sea. However, the coalition’s navy intercepted the three boats’ mission and failed their attempt.

Speaking at his weekly press conference at King Salman Base in Riyadh, Maliki explained that the attack was executed by three boats which navigated towards the carrier with one remotely controlled, the other had a team and the third boat contained the bombs. He added that the coalition navy spotted the three crafts and intercepted the boat with the explosives and detonated it.

He stressed that the coalition has a responsibility to the international community to maintain security and stability in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, indicating that the port has become a starting point for the terrorist group to threaten international and regional security.

“It is now necessary the United Nations takes the initiative to receive the port of Hodeidah from the Houthi armed group to help the Yemeni people and to maintain regional and international security and stability,” he added.

Colonel Maliki reviewed video segments showing Houthi militias training on how to target ships, vessels, carriers, and destroyers. He reiterated that these videos prove there are technical support and foreign experts in Yemen. It also debunks the requests to reopen Sanaa airport for navigation since, “no doubt there isn't any navigation safety in Sanaa airport.”

He pointed out that Houthis used radars to monitor the naval ships of the coalition, and commercial vessels crossing Bab al-Mandab, which is a “substantial evidence of the presence of foreign experts in Yemen to support the coupists”.

The Coalition welcomed the statement of UN’s Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator concerning the need to keep all ports open to both aid and commercial vessels so that life-saving assistance reaches those in desperate need in Yemen. The spokesman indicated that the important thing is to consider the reasons that led to such situation and not the results of it, adding that the situation inside Yemen worsened because insurgents “hijacked” the legitimacy and government.

Maliki announced that 14 permits were issued during the past week and 28 ships are still waiting for permission to enter. He highlighted efforts of the coalition forces in Yemen to restore security and stability in Yemeni governorates and military operations carried out by coalition forces against Houthi militias.

The spokesperson also presented the updated statistics, putting the number of ballistic missiles fired from within Yemeni territory towards Saudi Arabia at 87 ballistic missiles and 66,119 projectiles.



Libya Receives Invitation from Greece to Maritime Zone Talks to Ease Strained Ties

Children play by the tents, as recently arrived migrants shelter at the temporary migrants' camp staged on a soccer pitch in the region of Rethymno in Crete island, Greece, June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis/File Photo
Children play by the tents, as recently arrived migrants shelter at the temporary migrants' camp staged on a soccer pitch in the region of Rethymno in Crete island, Greece, June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis/File Photo
TT
20

Libya Receives Invitation from Greece to Maritime Zone Talks to Ease Strained Ties

Children play by the tents, as recently arrived migrants shelter at the temporary migrants' camp staged on a soccer pitch in the region of Rethymno in Crete island, Greece, June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis/File Photo
Children play by the tents, as recently arrived migrants shelter at the temporary migrants' camp staged on a soccer pitch in the region of Rethymno in Crete island, Greece, June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis/File Photo

Greece has invited Libya's internationally recognized government in Tripoli to start talks on demarcating exclusive economic zones in the Mediterranean Sea, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said late on Wednesday.

The move is aimed at mending relations between the two neighbors, strained by a controversial maritime deal signed in 2019 between the Libyan government and Türkiye, Greece's long-standing foe, which mapped out a sea area close to the Greek island of Crete.

"We invite - and I think you may soon see progress in this area - we invite the Tripoli government to discuss with Greece the delimitation of a continental shelf and an exclusive economic zone," Mitsotakis told local Skai television, Reuters reported.

Greece this year launched a new tender to develop its hydrocarbon resources off Crete, a move that Libya has objected to, saying some of the blocks infringed its own maritime zones.

Law and order has been weak in Libya since a 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi, with the country divided by factional conflict into eastern and western sections for over a decade.

Therefore, any communication with Libya was not easy, Mitsotakis said. He indicated that Greece was determined to continue talking to both the Tripoli-based government and a parallel administration based in Benghazi.

In recent months, Athens has sought closer cooperation with Libya to help stem a surge in migrant arrivals from the North African country to Greece's southern islands of Gavdos and Crete and passed legislation banning migrants arriving from Libya by sea from requesting asylum.

In an incident earlier this month, the European Union migration commissioner and ministers from Italy, Malta and Greece were denied entry to the eastern part of divided Libya, shortly after meeting the internationally recognized government that controls the west of Libya.