Al-Alimi Calls for Saving Yemen from Iran’s Agenda

Yemen’s Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Rashad al-Alimi meets Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abu Al-Gheit (Saba News Agency)
Yemen’s Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Rashad al-Alimi meets Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abu Al-Gheit (Saba News Agency)
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Al-Alimi Calls for Saving Yemen from Iran’s Agenda

Yemen’s Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Rashad al-Alimi meets Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abu Al-Gheit (Saba News Agency)
Yemen’s Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Rashad al-Alimi meets Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abu Al-Gheit (Saba News Agency)

Yemen’s Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Rashad al-Alimi has called for backing his country in restoring state institutions and ending the Houthi-led insurgency.

Al-Alimi arrived with five PLC members in Cairo. The Yemeni leader is currently on a regional tour that saw him visiting Kuwait and Bahrain.

In Egypt, al-Alimi held talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and visited the Egyptian parliament, before attending an Arab League session on Sunday.

During a speech at the Arab League, the PLC Chairman expressed his confidence in “the leading role of the League in advocating and supporting the Yemeni people in coordination with the Arab Coalition, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).”

According to al-Alimi, the Arab Coalition had helped in preventing the collapse of the Yemeni state and had bolstered the steadfastness of the front resisting Iranian influence in Yemen and the region.

Al-Alimi stressed the importance of the role of regional organizations and bodies, particularly the Arab League and the GCC. He said that Yemen relies on them in making peace and defending the interests of peoples, along with the UN and the international community.

He said he hoped the mounting pressures on the Iran-backed Houthis would force them to fulfill their obligations under the UN-brokered truce agreement, including opening roads to Taiz and other cities, rescuing the Safer oil tanker to prevent an unaffordable environmental disaster in the Red Sea, releasing prisoners and detainees, and paying salaries of employees in militia-controlled areas.

Al-Alimi renewed his warning of the dangers imposed by “the Iranian regime's backing of the rogue Houthi group.”

He said that Tehran’s support for Houthis threatens the security of the region and international shipping lanes.

“The continuation of the cross-borders attacks constitutes the most dangerous threat to global energy supplies from the neighboring countries that have been very keen on maintaining Yemen’s security, stability, and ending its peoples’ suffering,” al-Alimi said, in reference to Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

He also commended the Arab League’s decision to list the Houthis as a terrorist organization and urged Arab countries to enforce this decision into effect immediately to deter the militia from committing further violations against the Yemeni people.

During his visit to Cairo, the Yemeni president also met with Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abu Al-Gheit, where they discussed the latest development in the war-torn country.



Israel Military Says Soldier Killed in Gaza 

A drone view shows the destruction in a residential neighborhood, after the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the area, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Gaza City, October 21, 2025. (Reuters)
A drone view shows the destruction in a residential neighborhood, after the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the area, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Gaza City, October 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israel Military Says Soldier Killed in Gaza 

A drone view shows the destruction in a residential neighborhood, after the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the area, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Gaza City, October 21, 2025. (Reuters)
A drone view shows the destruction in a residential neighborhood, after the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the area, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Gaza City, October 21, 2025. (Reuters)

The Israeli military announced that one of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Gaza on Wednesday, but a security source said the death appeared to have been caused by "friendly fire".

"Staff Sergeant Ofri Yafe, aged 21, from HaYogev, a soldier in the Paratroopers Reconnaissance Unit, fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip," the military said in a statement.

A security source, however, told AFP that the soldier appeared to have been "killed by friendly fire", without providing further details.

"The incident is still under investigation," the source added.

The death brings to five the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since a ceasefire took effect on October 10.


Syria: SDF’s Mazloum Abdi Says Implementation of Integration Deal May Take Time

People sit outdoors surrounded by nature, with the Tigris river flowing in the background, following a long atmospheric depression, near the Syrian-Turkish border in Derik, Syria, February 16, 2026 REUTERS/Orhan Qereman
People sit outdoors surrounded by nature, with the Tigris river flowing in the background, following a long atmospheric depression, near the Syrian-Turkish border in Derik, Syria, February 16, 2026 REUTERS/Orhan Qereman
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Syria: SDF’s Mazloum Abdi Says Implementation of Integration Deal May Take Time

People sit outdoors surrounded by nature, with the Tigris river flowing in the background, following a long atmospheric depression, near the Syrian-Turkish border in Derik, Syria, February 16, 2026 REUTERS/Orhan Qereman
People sit outdoors surrounded by nature, with the Tigris river flowing in the background, following a long atmospheric depression, near the Syrian-Turkish border in Derik, Syria, February 16, 2026 REUTERS/Orhan Qereman

Mazloum Abdi, commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, said the process of merging the SDF with Syrian government forces “may take some time,” despite expressing confidence in the eventual success of the agreement.

His remarks came after earlier comments in which he acknowledged differences with Damascus over the concept of “decentralization.”

Speaking at a tribal conference in the northeastern city of Hasakah on Tuesday, Abdi said the issue of integration would not be resolved quickly, but stressed that the agreement remains on track.

He said the deal reached last month stipulates that three Syrian army brigades will be created out of the SDF.

Abdi added that all SDF military units have withdrawn to their barracks in an effort to preserve stability and continue implementing the announced integration agreement with the Syrian state.

He also emphasized the need for armed forces to withdraw from the vicinity of the city of Ayn al-Arab (Kobani), to be replaced by security forces tasked with maintaining order.


Israeli Far-Right Minister to Push for ‘Migration’ of West Bank, Gaza Palestinians 

A Palestinian man checks leather belts as people prepare for Ramadan, in the old city of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, February 17,2026. (Reuters)
A Palestinian man checks leather belts as people prepare for Ramadan, in the old city of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, February 17,2026. (Reuters)
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Israeli Far-Right Minister to Push for ‘Migration’ of West Bank, Gaza Palestinians 

A Palestinian man checks leather belts as people prepare for Ramadan, in the old city of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, February 17,2026. (Reuters)
A Palestinian man checks leather belts as people prepare for Ramadan, in the old city of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, February 17,2026. (Reuters)

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he would pursue a policy of "encouraging the migration" of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported Wednesday.

"We will eliminate the idea of an Arab terror state," said Smotrich, speaking at an event organized by his Religious Zionism Party late on Tuesday.

"We will finally, formally, and in practical terms nullify the cursed Oslo Accords and embark on a path toward sovereignty, while encouraging emigration from both Gaza and Judea and Samaria.

"There is no other long-term solution," added Smotrich, who himself lives in a settlement in the West Bank.

Since last week, Israel has approved a series of measures backed by far-right ministers to tighten control over the West Bank, including in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords, in place since the 1990s.

The measures include a process to register land in the West Bank as "state property" and facilitate direct purchases of land by Jewish Israelis.

The measures have triggered widespread international outrage.

On Tuesday, the UN missions of 85 countries condemned the measures, which critics say amount to de facto annexation of the Palestinian territory.

"We strongly condemn unilateral Israeli decisions and measures aimed at expanding Israel's unlawful presence in the West Bank," they said in a statement.

"Such decisions are contrary to Israel's obligations under international law and must be immediately reversed.

"We underline in this regard our strong opposition to any form of annexation."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called on Israel to reverse its land registration policy, calling it "destabilizing" and "unlawful".

The West Bank would form the largest part of any future Palestinian state. Many on Israel's religious right view it as Israeli land.

Israeli NGOs have also raised the alarm over a settlement plan signed by the government which they say would mark the first expansion of Jerusalem's borders into the occupied West Bank since 1967.

The planned development, announced by Israel's Ministry of Construction and Housing, is formally a westward expansion of the Geva Binyamin, or Adam, settlement situated northeast of Jerusalem in the West Bank.

The current Israeli government has fast-tracked settlement expansion, approving a record 52 settlements in 2025.

Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.