Yemen PM Stresses Need to End Iranian Meddling

Yemen's Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher attends a conference to raise funds for Yemen on April 25, 2017 at the United Nations office in Geneva. Fabrice Coffrini / AFP
Yemen's Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher attends a conference to raise funds for Yemen on April 25, 2017 at the United Nations office in Geneva. Fabrice Coffrini / AFP
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Yemen PM Stresses Need to End Iranian Meddling

Yemen's Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher attends a conference to raise funds for Yemen on April 25, 2017 at the United Nations office in Geneva. Fabrice Coffrini / AFP
Yemen's Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher attends a conference to raise funds for Yemen on April 25, 2017 at the United Nations office in Geneva. Fabrice Coffrini / AFP

Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Dagher has called for halting Iranian meddling in his country and ending the Houthi coup against legitimacy whether through a peace deal or a military solution.

According to Saba Net, bin Dagher said during a meeting on Thursday with the British ambassador to Yemen, Michael Aron, that the Yemeni government and people highly appreciate British efforts to achieve security and stability in Yemen.

He also praised UK’s support for the legitimate Yemeni government.

The prime minister briefed the newly-appointed diplomat on the situation in Yemen and UN and international efforts to solve the war politically.

Bin Dagher and Aron jointly stressed the importance of making the new UN envoy's mission successful.

The Yemeni prime minister stated that the legitimate government will deal constructively with UN initiatives for new consultations, provided that the militia proves its intention to solve the country’s crisis rather than trying to waste time.

Bin Dagher said: “The Arab Coalition’s intervention came in response to a call made by the legitimate Yemeni President after the Houthi militia took over several provinces, reaching Aden, Taiz and Marib.”

The Houthis “took up weapons against the State, cracked down on citizens and posed an existential threat to Yemen and its Arab neighbors and threatened international navigation ... to carry out Iran's agenda and plan in the region with the aim of blackmailing the international community,” he added.

The meeting also addressed the government's ongoing efforts to combat terrorism and normalize the situation in government-held areas.

For his part, the British ambassador reiterated support for Yemen’s unity, security and stability, and rejection of Iranian interference in the country’s affairs.



CIA Believes COVID Most Likely Originated from a Lab but Has Low Confidence in its Own Finding

(FILES) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seal is displayed in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on August 14, 2008. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
(FILES) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seal is displayed in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on August 14, 2008. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
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CIA Believes COVID Most Likely Originated from a Lab but Has Low Confidence in its Own Finding

(FILES) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seal is displayed in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on August 14, 2008. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
(FILES) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seal is displayed in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on August 14, 2008. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released Saturday that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion.
The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns. It was declassified and released Saturday on the orders of President Donald Trump's pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in Thursday as director, The Associated Press reported.
The nuanced finding suggests the agency believes the totality of evidence makes a lab origin more likely than a natural origin. But the agency's assessment assigns a low degree of confidence to this conclusion, suggesting the evidence is deficient, inconclusive or contradictory.
Earlier reports on the origins of COVID-19 have split over whether the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese lab, potentially by mistake, or whether it arose naturally. The new assessment is not likely to settle the debate. In fact, intelligence officials say it may never be resolved, due to a lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities.
The CIA "continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible,” the agency wrote in a statement about its new assessment.
Instead of new evidence, the conclusion was based on fresh analyses of intelligence about the spread of the virus, its scientific properties and the work and conditions of China's virology labs.
Lawmakers have pressured America's spy agencies for more information about the origins of the virus, which led to lockdowns, economic upheaval and millions of deaths. It's a question with significant domestic and geopolitical implications as the world continues to grapple with the pandemic's legacy.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Saturday he was “pleased the CIA concluded in the final days of the Biden administration that the lab-leak theory is the most plausible explanation" and he commended Ratcliffe for declassifying the assessment.
“Now, the most important thing is to make China pay for unleashing a plague on the world,” Cotton said in a statement.
Chinese authorities have dismissed speculation about COVID's origins as unhelpful and motivated by politics. On Saturday, a spokesperson for China's US embassy said the CIA report has no credibility.
“We firmly oppose the politicization and stigmatization of the source of the virus, and once again call on everyone to respect science and stay away from conspiracy theories,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press.
While the origin of the virus remains unknown, scientists think the most likely hypothesis is that it circulated in bats, like many coronaviruses, before infecting another species, probably racoon dogs, civet cats or bamboo rats. In turn, the infection spread to humans handling or butchering those animals at a market in Wuhan, where the first human cases appeared in late November 2019.
Some official investigations, however, have raised the the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan. Two years ago a report by the Energy Department concluded a lab leak was the most likely origin, though that report also expressed low confidence in the finding.
The same year then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency believed the virus “most likely” spread after escaping from a lab.
Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during Trump's first term, has said he favors the lab leak scenario, too.
“The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence, and common sense,” Ratcliffe said in 2023.