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Yemen, World Bank Discuss Investing ‘Special Drawing Rights’

International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, US September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, US September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
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Yemen, World Bank Discuss Investing ‘Special Drawing Rights’

International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, US September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, US September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik chaired a meeting with the World Bank on Thursday, official sources revealed. He discussed investing Yemen’s share of the Special Drawing Rights from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserves to stabilize its economy and services.

It is noteworthy that the share Abdulmalik discussed is worth around $665 million.

World Bank Executive Director and Dean of the Board of Executive Directors Merza Hasan, Yemeni Finance Minister Salem Bin Braik, and Yemeni Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Waed Badeeb partook in the meeting, which was held via videoconference.

More so, a World Bank team of technical experts also attended the meeting.

According to sources, the meeting examined World Bank proposals for Yemen using its Special Drawing Rights and mechanisms for enhancing its effective utilization.

More so, the meeting discussed optimal options that the government and the World Bank can take to improve economic and living conditions in Yemen and alleviate the suffering of citizens throughout the country without exception.

“Abdulmalik confirmed that his government will carefully study all proposed options for Yemen using its Special Drawing Rights,” sources said, adding that the prime minister is keen on ensuring that the move is beneficial for the country and does not deplete his country’s share.

The Yemeni government hopes to benefit from World Bank experiences in supporting reforms and strengthening the capabilities of the Central Bank of Yemen.

This could alleviate the severity of the economic crisis characterized by inflation of prices and the depreciation of the national currency. The Yemeni financial problem has been exacerbated by monetary policies adopted by Iran-backed Houthi militias.

About ten days ago, the IMF deposited $ 665 million at the Central Bank of Yemen to help ease an acute economic and humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country.

The fund’s regional representative for Yemen Gazi Shbaikat told Asharq Al-Awsat that the allocation would boost Yemen’s foreign exchange reserves by over 70%, providing much-needed support to help address the crisis, including with the many urgent foods and medical needs of the population.

The allocation comes after IMF Governors approved early this month a general assignment of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) - the fund’s unit of exchange backed by dollars, euros, yen, sterling and yuan – to a number of its countries.

Shbaikat said the SDRs allocating is considered a tool to support the foreign exchange reserves of the IMF’s 190 member countries in proportion to their existing quotas in the IMF.

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Arab World

Israel Will Investigate Hind Rajab’s Killing. Her Mother Wants More

Wesam Hamada, the mother of Hind Rajab shows a picture of her late daughter during an interview with The Associated Press at an undisclosed location, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. (AP)
Wesam Hamada, the mother of Hind Rajab shows a picture of her late daughter during an interview with The Associated Press at an undisclosed location, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. (AP)
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Israel Will Investigate Hind Rajab’s Killing. Her Mother Wants More

Wesam Hamada, the mother of Hind Rajab shows a picture of her late daughter during an interview with The Associated Press at an undisclosed location, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. (AP)
Wesam Hamada, the mother of Hind Rajab shows a picture of her late daughter during an interview with The Associated Press at an undisclosed location, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. (AP)

The mother of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed after Israeli forces fired on her family’s car in Gaza City wants an independent inquiry into her death, saying an Israeli military investigation announced this week is insufficient.

Wesam Hamada said her daughter Hind Rajab’s final pleas still haunt her.

“All I remember is her voice pleading, ‘Mama, I’m scared. Mama, I’m hungry. Mama, I’m hurt,’” she said. “Her voice keeps repeating in my ears.”

The widely publicized recording of Hind's January 2024 phone call with her mother and emergency dispatchers made her one of the Israel-Hamas war’s most prominent casualties.

Israel’s military this week admitted to firing at the family’s car as it fled an Israeli invasion and firing toward an ambulance dispatched to help them.

It said it would launch a criminal investigation into its troops’ conduct. All six people in the car and two paramedics were killed. But both Rajab’s family and emergency responders from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society doubt the Israeli investigation can deliver justice.

“Why did the investigation and the acknowledgment of the shooting at Hind’s car and at the paramedics come only after more than two years?” Hamada said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s an attempt to distract from what’s happening in Gaza and improve the (Israeli) army’s image to the world. That’s it."

The story of their deaths drew international outcry after the Palestinian Red Crescent Society released recordings of Hind and her 15-year-old cousin Layan Hamada calling for help. It was further amplified by “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a film that excerpted the recordings and was nominated for an Oscar.

On the recordings, as audible gunfire erupts around them, Hamada asks for help and tells Red Crescent dispatchers that her family had been killed. Seconds later, more gunshots are heard, and Layan’s screaming stops.

Ambulance dispatchers called back and found Hind on the other end of the line. She told them Layan was dead and Israeli tanks were advancing. The Red Crescent sent an ambulance and stayed in contact with Hind until the call dropped.

Hind and five relatives were found dead in the family car 12 days later. The two medics sent to rescue her were also found dead nearby, their ambulance blackened and destroyed.

Israel initially said its troops were not in the area. A UN commission of inquiry and an investigation by the research group Forensic Architecture found evidence placing Israeli forces near the car and attributed the attack to them.

Rana Al-Faqih, a dispatcher who was in contact with Hind for more than three hours, said the day remains seared in her memory. She tried to calm Hind and patched her mother onto the call to comfort her.

An impartial investigation is the only way to deliver justice to Hind's family and the families of emergency workers, she said in an interview at the Red Crescent headquarters in Ramallah, West Bank.

Advocates doubt an Israeli investigation can bring accountability

The investigation is one of two criminal probes the military announced Wednesday after reviewing roughly 150 incidents.

Military investigators will now take up the probes and present their findings to military prosecutors. The military advocate general can then decide to keep investigating, indict any soldiers or decline to charge them.

Israeli officials say the country’s justice system can address any violations by its troops. But such investigations rarely lead to indictments. Just 0.17% of incidents reviewed from 2014 and 2022 led to prosecution, according to an analysis by Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

The Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation, which campaigns for the arrest of Israeli troops it accuses of war crimes, said in a statement on Wednesday that an Israeli military investigation “should not be mistaken for a genuine step toward justice.”

“Israel’s internal investigations into the criminal conduct of its own soldiers are fundamentally flawed and cannot be regarded as credible mechanisms of accountability,” it said.

The Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and abducted 251 others. More than 73,400 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive since, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, does not give a breakdown of civilians and gunmen but says women and children constitute about half the deaths.

Hamada said her pain since the killing of Hind — who had wanted to become a doctor — was not unique.

“The pain is like the pain of every mother who has lost her child in Gaza,” she said. “You wish she were in front of you, growing up and fulfilling your dreams and her dreams, and then you lose her in the most horrific circumstances.”

Arab World

Baghdad Implicitly Backtracks on Deadline to Confine Weapons to the State

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf meet in Baghdad on Wednesday. (Iraq's Prime Minister Media Office / AFP)
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf meet in Baghdad on Wednesday. (Iraq's Prime Minister Media Office / AFP)
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Baghdad Implicitly Backtracks on Deadline to Confine Weapons to the State

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf meet in Baghdad on Wednesday. (Iraq's Prime Minister Media Office / AFP)
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf meet in Baghdad on Wednesday. (Iraq's Prime Minister Media Office / AFP)

The Iraqi government on Friday showed signs of backpedaling on the previously scheduled September 30 deadline to restrict weapons to the state.

In statements to local media, government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi said: "September 30 is the date for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, not the final deadline for factions to surrender their weapons."

Speaking on the sidelines of the Baghdad Dialogue Conference, which was attended by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, al-Aboudi stressed that "dialogue with the factions is proceeding regularly and has made significant progress because it stems from the fundamentals of state sovereignty and the interests of the Iraqi people, two pillars that are not disputed."

Al-Aboudi acknowledged "anxiety and disagreement over the mechanisms," though he noted that "this file is subject to dialogue that is moving in the right direction."

Al-Zaidi spoke about these "disagreements" without revealing their details during a panel discussion at the Baghdad Dialogue.

"All political forces completely agree on moving forward with restricting weapons to the state, and work is underway on the mechanisms for handing over weapons and ending this situation entirely," the PM said.

"There is an ongoing dialogue, directly with opposing factions and indirectly with others," he added, pointing out that "most concerned parties have become convinced of the need to hand over weapons, but the dispute is over the mechanism."

"There is no problem with this (dispute) as long as the goal is ultimately achieved," he stressed.

Al-Zaidi said the "weapons restriction mechanism" begins with a faction declaring its cessation of military activity, followed by surrendering its arms to the government, and concluding with disengagement.

When asked what he meant by disengagement, al-Zaidi replied: "The faction will no longer be able to mobilize or direct its fighters; instead, the federal government will do so through the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)."

He stressed that authorities had no intention of becoming embroiled in a military confrontation with any party.

The implicit backpedaling from the September 30 deadline took place amid significant political pressure by factions and leaders within the ruling Shiite Coordination Framework and coincided with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf’s visit to Iraq.

Upon his arrival in Baghdad on Wednesday, Qalibaf declared that "the resistance in Iraq has become an essential element of global power," noting that relations between Baghdad and Tehran are moving toward establishing a "new order" free from foreign interference.

Sources said late last week that Qalibaf carried Iranian proposals to avoid a direct confrontation between the Iraqi government and Tehran-aligned factions, including ideas related to "freezing" or concealing heavy weaponry until a political settlement about the future of the factions' arms is reached.

The details of the proposals could not be independently verified, and no official announcement about them has been made by either Tehran or the Iraqi government.

Arab World

Palestinian President Welcomes Joint International Statement Rejecting E1 Settlement Plan

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a press conference in Ankara on Wednesday (EPA)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a press conference in Ankara on Wednesday (EPA)
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Palestinian President Welcomes Joint International Statement Rejecting E1 Settlement Plan

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a press conference in Ankara on Wednesday (EPA)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a press conference in Ankara on Wednesday (EPA)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed a joint statement issued by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, and Norway rejecting the Israeli occupation government's continuation of the E1 settlement plan and demanding an immediate halt to settlement expansion across the occupied West Bank.

Abbas called on the Israeli occupation government to immediately cancel the plan, stressing that severing the northern West Bank from its southern territory and isolating East Jerusalem constitutes a flagrant violation of international law, particularly UN Security Council Resolution 2334, and undermines the establishment of an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, SPA reported.

The Palestinian president urged the signatory nations, the European Union, the UN Security Council, and the international community to translate their positions into concrete measures to halt settlement activities and to refuse recognition of any unlawful changes imposed on occupied Palestinian land.