Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha Commences Mission as Head of UNMHA

United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths beside Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha of India. (Twitter account of Griffiths)
United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths beside Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha of India. (Twitter account of Griffiths)
TT
20

Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha Commences Mission as Head of UNMHA

United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths beside Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha of India. (Twitter account of Griffiths)
United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths beside Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha of India. (Twitter account of Griffiths)

Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha of India has commenced his mission as head of United Nations Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA), announced United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths.

He will succeed Lieutenant General Michael Lollesgaard, amid the shrinking possibility of implementing the Stockholm Agreement that goes 10 months back between the legitimate government and the Iranian-supported Houthi group.

Griffiths tweeted welcoming the Lieutenant General, saying that he looks forward to cooperating with him.

Guha is the third head of UNMHA since Stockholm Agreement, signed in December.

Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) for Yemen managed to let the two parties meet in six rounds of talks for the sake of implementing the agreement. However, it achieved no breakthrough except for the fragile truce that concurred with thousands of breaches.

The UN announced, last month, appointing Guha after the conclusion of Lollesgaard's term. There are hopes that he succeeds in resuming the agreement’s implementation, fixing the ceasefire, completing the second phase of redeployment, and achieving a breakthrough in the most complex issues such as security, resources, and local authority.

Despite Houthis' claims that they finished more than 90 percent of their obligations related to the Hodeidah agreement, the legitimate government affirmed that the withdrawal of the group from three ports of Hodeidah was fictitious.

The local authority, local security forces, and the ports’ resources are the main three topics hindering any tangible progress to implement Hodeidah agreement.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Mohammad al-Hadrami stressed earlier the government’s keenness to achieve peace based on the three references – he also affirmed to Griffiths in their most recent meeting that moving to political consultations regarding the comprehensive settlement with Houthis is hinged to the implementation of the Stockholm Agreement.

Hadrami called on the international community to pressure Houthis to implement it, saying that the government doesn’t expect those who didn’t respect earlier agreements to abide by the coming ones.



Türkiye Backing Syria’s Military and Has No Immediate Withdrawal Plans, Defense Minister Says 

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
TT
20

Türkiye Backing Syria’s Military and Has No Immediate Withdrawal Plans, Defense Minister Says 

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)

Türkiye is training and advising Syria's armed forces and helping improve its defenses, and has no immediate plans for the withdrawal or relocation of its troops stationed there, Defense Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters.

Türkiye has emerged as a key foreign ally of Syria's new government since opposition groups - some of them backed for years by Ankara - ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December to end his family's five-decade rule.

It has promised to help rebuild neighboring Syria and facilitate the return of millions of Syrian civil war refugees, and played a key role last month getting US and European sanctions on Syria lifted.

The newfound Turkish influence in Damascus has raised Israeli concerns and risked a standoff or worse in Syria between the regional powers.

In written answers to questions from Reuters, Guler said Türkiye and Israel, which carried out its latest airstrikes on southern Syria late on Tuesday, are continuing de-confliction talks to avoid military accidents in the country.

Türkiye’s overall priority in Syria is preserving its territorial integrity and unity, and ridding it of terrorism, he said, adding Ankara was supporting Damascus in these efforts.

"We have started providing military training and consultancy services, while taking steps to increase Syria's defense capacity," Guler said, without elaborating on those steps.

Named to the post by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan two years ago, Guler said it was too early to discuss possible withdrawal or relocation of the more than 20,000 Turkish troops in Syria.

Ankara controlled swathes of northern Syria and established dozens of bases there after several cross-border operations in recent years against Kurdish militants it deems terrorists.

This can "only be re-evaluated when Syria achieves peace and stability, when the threat of terrorism in the region is fully removed, when our border security is fully ensured, and when the honorable return of people who had to flee is done," he said.

NATO member Türkiye has accused Israel of undermining Syrian peace and rebuilding with its military operations there in recent months and, since late 2023, has also fiercely criticized Israel's assault on Gaza.

But the two regional powers have been quietly working to establish a de-confliction mechanism in Syria.

Guler described the talks as "technical level meetings to establish a de-confliction mechanism to prevent unwanted events" or direct conflict, as well as "a communication and coordination structure".

"Our efforts to form this line and make it fully operational continue. Yet it should not be forgotten that the de-confliction mechanism is not a normalization," he told Reuters.