UfM Chief: Euro-Med Cooperation Is a Necessity, Not Luxury 

Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Secretary-General Nasser Kamel. Asharq Al-Awsat
Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Secretary-General Nasser Kamel. Asharq Al-Awsat
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UfM Chief: Euro-Med Cooperation Is a Necessity, Not Luxury 

Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Secretary-General Nasser Kamel. Asharq Al-Awsat
Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Secretary-General Nasser Kamel. Asharq Al-Awsat

Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Secretary-General Nasser Kamel confirmed that Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, today more than ever, has become a pressing need, not a luxury.

Speaking about efforts undertaken by the union in 2008, Kamel said they faced many hurdles due to global economic and geopolitical crises, but have seen notable improvement.

“The last three to four years have seen overall relative recovery. First, a number of countries have stabilized and returned to growth. Egypt is a model in this regard, as are Morocco and Jordan,” Kamel said in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Today, even Tunisia is stabilizing. Of course, countries such as Libya and Syria still need time, but the geo-strategic situation in general is much better now than in previous years,” he added.

Progress was achieved, according to Kamel, as a result of a strong political will harbored by member states.

The UfM is an intergovernmental organization of 43 member states from Europe and the Mediterranean Basin: 28 EU member states and 15 Mediterranean partner countries from North Africa, Western Asia and Southern Europe.

In the Egyptian capital this week, the UfM organized the first trade forum. The event witnessed the participation of more than 150 representatives of governments, stakeholders, business communities, think tanks and trade interlocutors. Attendees work in regional and international organizations.

On the forum’s sidelines, Kamel told an Asharq Al-Awsat correspondent that the UfM finds a positive model for regional integration in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

He also underscored the GCC’s resilience against nearby cluster economies and fierce trade wars. Addressing rising populism in a number of European countries, Kamel said it will not affect the union’s work.

“The UfM’s success or decline can act as a thermometer of the regional situation,” Kamel said on the union’s importance.

According to Kamel, the UfM initially suffered because Europe was experiencing an unprecedented financial crunch, especially in South Africa and the world—meanwhile, the Arab world was in a state of extraordinary liquidity. And then geopolitical challenges emerged with Arab Spring protests sweeping the region.

“Therefore, Euro-Mediterranean cooperation faced great challenges,” he said.

“For different reasons, there was no stability in the north or south … each party suffered its own share of acute crises that ranged from mass waves of immigration to armed conflicts, and so forth.”

Speaking on progress in the UfM workframe, Kamel stressed that “Euro-Mediterranean cooperation is not a luxury, and that it is based on an objective rooted in geographic, historic and political realities.”

“Integration between Europe and the southern Mediterranean is geo-strategic. We are separated by a lake, not a sea, but joined by a shared history (with its negative and positive aspects) and brought together in a world governed by the logic of blocs,” Kamel said, arguing that this gives the UfM indispensable value.



Yemeni Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat: Houthis Have Lost Nearly 30% of their Military Capabilities

This handout photo released by the US Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) shows a US F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter jet taking off from the US Navy's Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier at sea on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Hunter DAY / DVIDS / AFP)
This handout photo released by the US Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) shows a US F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter jet taking off from the US Navy's Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier at sea on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Hunter DAY / DVIDS / AFP)
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Yemeni Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat: Houthis Have Lost Nearly 30% of their Military Capabilities

This handout photo released by the US Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) shows a US F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter jet taking off from the US Navy's Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier at sea on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Hunter DAY / DVIDS / AFP)
This handout photo released by the US Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) shows a US F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter jet taking off from the US Navy's Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier at sea on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Hunter DAY / DVIDS / AFP)

The Iran-backed Houthis are in disarray over escalating American strikes targeting military and security sites, as well as weapons depots belonging to them, Yemeni Minister of Information Moammar Al-Eryani said, revealing that the group has lost nearly 30% of its military capabilities.

Al-Eryani told Asharq Al-Awsat that the recent strikes have directly hit "the military capabilities of the Houthi group, targeting mainly infrastructure related to ballistic missiles and drones, which were used to threaten international maritime navigation in the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb, and the Gulf of Aden."

US President Donald Trump had ordered the start of the military campaign against the Houthis on March 15, pledging to destroy their capabilities.

In the past four weeks, the Houthis have been hit by 365 air and naval strikes, field reports said. The campaign has been primarily targeting fortified bunkers and military warehouses, especially in the group's strongholds in the governorates of Saada, Sanaa, Amran, and Hodeidah.

"Our assessment, based on our field sources, is that the militia has lost 30% of its capabilities, and this number is rising as military operations continue,” Al-Eryani said.

The minister also spoke of "surprises” that will please Yemenis in the coming weeks.

Trump said Monday that the US campaign against the Houthis has been “very successful militarily.”

“We’ve really damaged them,” he said, adding that “we’ve gotten many of their leaders and their experts.”

The Yemeni Minister of Information considered the powerful strikes “as not enough to end the Houthi threat, especially since the militia is still receiving logistical support from Iran through multiple smuggling routes."

Last week, Britain’s The Telegraph quoted a senior Iranian official as saying that Iran had ordered military personnel to leave Yemen to avoid direct confrontation with the US.

Al-Eryani called for “keeping military, political, and economic pressure” on the Houthis and increasing control on the sources that provide arms to the Houthis. He also called for “supporting the legitimate forces to enable them to take control of all Yemeni territory."
Al-Eryani confirmed that the Houthis have recently suffered significant human losses at various leadership levels, yet the militias have avoided announcing such losses for fear of undermining the morale of their fighters.

Last month, Yemeni Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Mohsen Mohammed al-Daeri told Asharq Al-Awsat that the country’s armed forces and all military formations were at a high state of readiness to respond firmly to any Houthi attacks or provocations.

Al-Daeri said the Houthis bear full responsibility for the recent escalation, the imposition of international sanctions, and the militarization of regional waters, which have worsened the humanitarian and economic situation for Yemenis.