Medics at Sanaa’s Largest Hospital Protest against Houthi Oppression

A view of the old quarter of Sanaa, Yemen August 6, 2018. (Reuters)
A view of the old quarter of Sanaa, Yemen August 6, 2018. (Reuters)
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Medics at Sanaa’s Largest Hospital Protest against Houthi Oppression

A view of the old quarter of Sanaa, Yemen August 6, 2018. (Reuters)
A view of the old quarter of Sanaa, Yemen August 6, 2018. (Reuters)

Dozens of medics and nurses working at the Al-Thawra Modern General Hospital in the Houthi-held Yemeni capital, Sanaa, have protested against the Iran-backed militias’ oppression, local sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Late last week, Al-Thawra staffers staged a demonstration to voice their discontent with the Houthi violation of their rights.

The rallied across local neighborhoods near the hospital, demanding that they receive their share of revenues the Houthis are collecting from their services, the sources revealed.

They also expressed their total rejection of all practices instilled by Ali Hajaf, who was appointed by the Houthis as Al-Thawra’s chief of medicine.

For years, the Houthis have channeled the hospital staffer’s income to their war effort and have gone beyond the pale in their harassment of Sanaa medics and their families.

Despite the militias’ threats to dismiss, arrest and imprison them, many protesters vowed they would continue to stage marches until their financial dues are met, and systematic injustice and oppression are ended.

Moreover, an official at the hospital’s staff syndicate urged all employees, union leaders and health sector employees to join their fellow protesters to press for rights.

Al-Thawra is one of the largest public hospitals in Yemen, and it enjoys substantial financial support.

However, since the Houthi coup, it has been the victim of multiple lootings ordered by senior officials in the militias.

Since early 2021, the Houthis have stepped up their targeting of hundreds of doctors and workers at Al-Thawra and other government hospitals in the areas they control.

Not only did the Houthis loot Al-Thawra’s finances, but they have also limited the health center’s services to exclusively treat wounded and sick combatants or those who would pay more than the average medical fee.



Putin Denies Russian Defeat in Syria, Says He Plans to Meet Assad

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
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Putin Denies Russian Defeat in Syria, Says He Plans to Meet Assad

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus to maintain Russia's military bases there.
In his first public comments on the subject, Putin said he had not yet met former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad since was overthrown and forced to flee to Moscow earlier this month, but that he planned to do so.
In response to a question on the subject from a US journalist, Putin said he would ask Assad about the fate of US reporter Austin Tice, who is missing in Syria, and was ready to ask Syria's new rulers about Tice's whereabouts too.
"I will tell you frankly, I have not yet seen President Assad since he came to Moscow. But I plan to do so. I will definitely talk to him," said Putin.
He said most people in Syria with whom Russia had been in contact about the future of its two main military bases in Syria were supportive of them staying, but that talks were ongoing, Reuters said.
Russia, which intervened in Syria in 2015 and turned the tide of the civil war there in Assad's favor, had also told other countries that they could use its airbase and naval base to bring in humanitarian aid for Syria, he said.
"You want to portray everything that is happening in Syria as some kind of failure, a defeat for Russia. I assure you, it is not. And I'll tell you why. We came to Syria 10 years ago to prevent a terrorist enclave from being created there," said Putin.
"On the whole, we have achieved our goal. It is not for nothing that today many European countries and the United States want to establish relations with them (Syria's new rulers). If they are terrorist organizations, why are you (the West) going there? So that means they have changed."