Griffiths Confirms De-escalation in Yemen’s War

FILE PHOTO - United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths attends a meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia July 1, 2019. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
FILE PHOTO - United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths attends a meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia July 1, 2019. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
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Griffiths Confirms De-escalation in Yemen’s War

FILE PHOTO - United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths attends a meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia July 1, 2019. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
FILE PHOTO - United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths attends a meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia July 1, 2019. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

United Nations Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths said Friday that there has been a de-escalation in Yemen’s war in the past two week.

"In what is perhaps an even more important sign that something is changing in Yemen..., in the last two weeks the rate has dramatically reduced: there were almost 80 percent fewer air strikes nationwide than in the two weeks prior," Griffiths told the Security Council by video conference from his Amman office.

Referring to the Riyadh Agreement signed between the Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council, he described it as “perhaps a move towards an overall ceasefire in Yemen.”

Griffiths also said there was a strengthened ceasefire in the key port of Hodeidah but expressed concern over increasing movement restrictions by the Houthi militias on the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement.



France Expels 12 Algerian Officials in Tit-for-Tat Move amid Diplomatic Tensions

Algerian flags fly at half-staff along the seaside walk in Algiers, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. (AP)
Algerian flags fly at half-staff along the seaside walk in Algiers, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. (AP)
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France Expels 12 Algerian Officials in Tit-for-Tat Move amid Diplomatic Tensions

Algerian flags fly at half-staff along the seaside walk in Algiers, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. (AP)
Algerian flags fly at half-staff along the seaside walk in Algiers, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. (AP)

France said Tuesday it was expelling 12 Algerian diplomatic officials a day after Algeria announced the expulsion of the same number of French officials in escalating tensions between the two countries.

Algeria said Monday that its expulsion of 12 French officials was over the arrest of an Algerian consular official by French authorities in a kidnapping case, but relations between the two sides have been deteriorating since last summer. That's when France shifted its position to support Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara — a disputed territory claimed by the pro-independence Polisario Front, which receives support from Algeria.

Tensions further peaked in November after Algeria arrested French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who is an outspoken critic of the Algerian regime. He has since been sentenced to five years in prison — a verdict he subsequently appealed.

In addition to what French officials called the "symmetrically" calibrated expulsion of 12 Algerian officials, France's ambassador to Algiers also was being recalled home for consultations, a statement from the French presidential palace said Tuesday.

It said Algerian authorities were responsible for "a brutal deterioration in our bilateral relations."

French counterterrorism prosecutors said three Algerian nationals in total were arrested last week and handed preliminary charges of "kidnapping or arbitrary detention … in connection with a terrorist undertaking."

The group is allegedly involved in the April 2024 kidnapping of an Algerian influencer, Amir Boukhors, or Amir DZ, a known critic of the Algerian government with 1.1 million followers on TikTok.

The latest surge in acrimony followed a brief easing of tensions about two weeks ago when French President Emmanuel Macron called Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune. French officials said they had agreed to revive bilateral relations.