163 Houthi Violations Recorded in Hodeidah in 2 Days

Houthi militants during a gathering in Yemen's capital Sanaa, March 16, 2019. (dpa)
Houthi militants during a gathering in Yemen's capital Sanaa, March 16, 2019. (dpa)
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163 Houthi Violations Recorded in Hodeidah in 2 Days

Houthi militants during a gathering in Yemen's capital Sanaa, March 16, 2019. (dpa)
Houthi militants during a gathering in Yemen's capital Sanaa, March 16, 2019. (dpa)

The UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement expressed its concern over the mounting violence in the coastal Yemeni province, a day after the Iran-backed Houthi militias attacked the Red Sea grain silos and the frontline in the eastern parts of the city.

Head of the mission General Abhijit Guha said the violent fighting that erupted around Hodeidah on August 27 was a special cause for concern.

He called on all sides to cease undermining the implementation of the Hodeidah Agreement, which was reached in Stockholm in late 2018.

He also urged them against endangering the lives of the people in the province.

Meanwhile, the joint Yemeni forces announced that they had recorded 163 violations of the UN-sponsored truce committed by the Houthis in various regions in southern Hodeidah on Thursday and Friday alone.

It cited Houthi artillery, bomb and machine gun attacks in the areas of al-Tour, al-Jah, al-Tahita, Khays and Hodeidah city. The attacks targeted residential and agricultural areas and public roads and prevented people for heading to their jobs.



Cyprus Leader Becomes First Foreign Dignitary to Visit Lebanon’s New President

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
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Cyprus Leader Becomes First Foreign Dignitary to Visit Lebanon’s New President

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has become the foreign head of state and first foreign dignitary to pay an official visit to Lebanon's new President Joseph Aoun.

Aoun, the former commander of the Lebanese army, was elected Thursday by the Lebanese parliament to fill a more than two-year vacuum in the presidency.

“I wanted to be the first to visit President Aoun and show, not in words but in actions that Cyprus stands by Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” Christodoulides told reporters afterward.

They discussed energy, security, trade and shipping, his office said in a written statement.

Cyprus and Lebanon have had close relations for decades. In recent years the two countries have been involved in intense discussions over border control, as many Syrian refugees living in Lebanon — and an increasing number of Lebanese since the country's major economic crisis began in 2019 — sought to reach Cyprus by sea in smuggler boats.

Cyprus is less than 200 kilometers (130 miles) from the Lebanese capital Beirut and they share maritime borders in waters where undersea natural gas deposits are believed to lie.