Yemen Complains to UNSC about Houthi Crimes in Marib

Yemeni medics at the Marib Hospital treat a girl who was injured in a Houthi missile strike on a residential area in the city of Marib, on October 3, 2021. (Photo by AFP)
Yemeni medics at the Marib Hospital treat a girl who was injured in a Houthi missile strike on a residential area in the city of Marib, on October 3, 2021. (Photo by AFP)
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Yemen Complains to UNSC about Houthi Crimes in Marib

Yemeni medics at the Marib Hospital treat a girl who was injured in a Houthi missile strike on a residential area in the city of Marib, on October 3, 2021. (Photo by AFP)
Yemeni medics at the Marib Hospital treat a girl who was injured in a Houthi missile strike on a residential area in the city of Marib, on October 3, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

Against a backdrop of raging Houthi military escalation, the internationally recognized Yemeni government filed a complaint at the UN Security Council about Houthi crimes against civilians in the northern governorate of Marib.

On Thursday, Houthis targeted the residential al-Rawdah neighborhood in Marib for the second time within a few days. In the first attack, Houthis launched three ballistic missiles, killing and injuring around 35 Yemenis, including women and children.

Yemen’s Permanent Representative to the UN Abdullah Al-Saadi sent a letter to the UNSC about the massacres Houthis are committing in Marib, where they are attacking civilians in different areas and laying siege to al-Abdiyah district.

Al-Saadi pointed out that the last Houthi attack on October 3 targeted the residential neighborhood of al-Rawdah, north of the central city of Marib.

According to the representative, the attack killed and wounded at least 29 civilians, including at least four women and five children, one of whom was only seven months old.

“This attack is not the first of its kind, as Houthi militias continue to launch ballistic missiles to kill and injure civilians in Marib and other places in Yemen, and there are many examples of such attacks, such as the attack on the al-Majma neighborhood in Marib,” said Al-Saadi.

The representative also recalled the July 3 attack on children leaving school in Taiz.

In addition, Al-Saadi shed light on Houthi crimes against civilians in the al-Abdiyah district, south of Marib.

There, Houthi militias have been depriving 5,300 families (a total of 35,000 civilians) of access to food, water, and medicine for about three weeks. The siege on al-Abdiyah has killed at least three civilians so far.

Moreover, Al-Saadi confirmed that the Houthi siege of the al-Abdiyah district deprives 34 patients of access to urgent health care, 23 of whom suffer from kidney failure, and 11 have cancer.

“Continued Houthi violation of human rights and international humanitarian law will exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation in Yemen and push the country further away from reaching a political solution to the crisis,” noted Al-Saadi.



Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
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Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, Türkiye’s foreign ministry said, without providing further details.

Photographs and footage shared by the ministry showed Fidan and Sharaa, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which led the operation to topple Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, walking ahead of a crowded delegation before posing for photographs.

The two are also seen shaking hands, hugging, and smiling.

On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Türkiye would help Syria's new administration form a state structure and draft a new constitution, adding Fidan would head to Damascus to discuss this new structure, without providing a date.

Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, also visited Damascus on Dec. 12, four days after Assad's fall.

Ankara had for years backed opposition fighters looking to oust Assad and welcomed the end of his family's brutal five-decade rule after a 13-year civil war. Türkiye also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes will start returning home after Assad's fall, and has vowed to help rebuild Syria.

Fidan's visit comes amid fighting in northeast Syria between Türkiye-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast and Ankara regards as a terrorist organization.

Earlier, Türkiye’s defense minister said Ankara believed that Syria's new leadership, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in the northeast.

Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of Syrian territory along the border, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the Kurdish fighters.

The SDF has been on the back foot since Assad's fall, with the threat of advances from Ankara and Türkiye-backed groups as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years, and with Syria's new rulers being friendly to Ankara.