Houthis Deport 6 Baha’i Community Members from Yemen

Deported Baha'i members on board a UN-provided plane. (social media)
Deported Baha'i members on board a UN-provided plane. (social media)
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Houthis Deport 6 Baha’i Community Members from Yemen

Deported Baha'i members on board a UN-provided plane. (social media)
Deported Baha'i members on board a UN-provided plane. (social media)

Weeks after deporting a Jewish Yemeni family, the Iran-backed Houthi militias exiled six Baha’i leaders after years of jailing and trying them for apostasy and espionage.

Well-informed sources in Sanaa confirmed that the six Baha’is were initially released in response to UN efforts. The sources, however, revealed that Houthis gave them an ultimatum of either staying in prison or leaving Houthi-run territory. This comes despite the Houthis allegedly issuing general amnesty for the Baha’is some four months ago.

The amnesty decision includes the faith group’s leader who was facing a death sentence.

Baha’i sources in Yemen told Asharq Al-Awsat the six sent to exile are: Hamid Haydara, Walid Ayash, Akram Ayash, Kivan Qadiri, Badeehallah Sanai and Wael al-Ariqi.

They were transferred from Houthi intelligence holding facilities to the airport in Sanaa where the UN, through the office of special envoy Martin Griffiths, and its agencies ran the negotiations for their release.

The Baha’i International Community group welcomed the releases and called for their assets to be returned, for all charges against Baha’is in Yemen to be dropped and for Baha’is to live in Yemen without persecution. The released have been granted asylum in a European country.



Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
TT

Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)

Lebanon's newly elected President Joseph Aoun told lawmakers on Thursday that he will work to ensure the state has the exclusive right to carry arms, in his first speech at parliament after he was elected.

His comments were seen partly as a reference to Hezbollah's arsenal, which he had not commented on publicly as the former army commander.

In a first round of voting Thursday, Aoun received 71 out of 128 votes but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to win outright. Of the rest, 37 lawmakers cast blank ballots and 14 voted for “sovereignty and the constitution.”
In the second round, he received 99 votes.

In his speech in parliament, Aoun also pledged to carry out reforms to the judicial system and fight corruption.

He promised to control the country’s borders and “ensure the activation of the security services and to discuss a strategic defense policy that will enable the Lebanese state to remove the Israeli occupation from all Lebanese territories” in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli military has not yet withdrawn from dozens of villages.

He also vowed to reconstruct “what the Israeli army destroyed in the south, east and (Beirut’s southern) suburbs.”

Thursday’s vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking international assistance for reconstruction.

Aoun said he would call for parliamentary consultations as soon as possible on naming a new prime minister.