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 Orders Army to Prepare for 'Expanding' Lebanon Operations

A man stands by the rubble of a destroyed building in the aftermath of overnight Israeli airstrikes in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on March 12, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
A man stands by the rubble of a destroyed building in the aftermath of overnight Israeli airstrikes in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on March 12, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
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Israel Orders Army to Prepare for 'Expanding' Lebanon Operations

A man stands by the rubble of a destroyed building in the aftermath of overnight Israeli airstrikes in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on March 12, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
A man stands by the rubble of a destroyed building in the aftermath of overnight Israeli airstrikes in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on March 12, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that he had ordered the military to prepare for expanding operations in Lebanon after Hezbollah fired a heavy barrage of rockets ⁠at Israel overnight.

"The Prime Minister and I have instructed the IDF to prepare for expanding IDF operations in Lebanon and for restoring quiet and security to the northern communities," Katz was quoted as saying in a statement.

"I warned the President of Lebanon that if the Lebanese government does not know how to control the territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening northern communities and firing toward Israel -- we will take the territory and do it ourselves," Katz said in a situation assessment, according to the statement from his ministry.

 

A man walks over blood stains, in the aftermath of an Israeli strike in Ramlet al-Bayda at Corniche Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon, March 12, 2026. REUTERS/Claudia Greco

 

An Israeli strike hit a car Thursday in Ramlet al-Bayda, a major seaside tourist area of Beirut where dozens of displaced people have been sheltering. Eight people were killed and 31 others were wounded, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

In Aramoun, a town about 10 kilometers south of Beirut, another three people were killed and a child was wounded in another early Israeli attack.

At least 634 people have been killed in Lebanon since the latest fighting began, the Health Ministry said.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

Hezbollah launched some 200 rockets at Israel’s north and deeper into the country overnight, the Israeli military says.

Many rockets were intercepted and no serious injuries were reported.


Strikes Kill Nine Iran-backed Fighters near Iraq-Syria Border

Fighters raise the "Hashed" logo during military exercises (Archival - Popular Mobilization Forces)
Fighters raise the "Hashed" logo during military exercises (Archival - Popular Mobilization Forces)
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Strikes Kill Nine Iran-backed Fighters near Iraq-Syria Border

Fighters raise the "Hashed" logo during military exercises (Archival - Popular Mobilization Forces)
Fighters raise the "Hashed" logo during military exercises (Archival - Popular Mobilization Forces)

Air strikes killed at least nine Iran-backed fighters in Iraq on Thursday near the Iraqi-Syrian border, two senior security officials told AFP.

Another 10 fighters were wounded in the strikes that targeted a base belonging to the US-blacklisted Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, the officials added on condition of anonymity, with one saying that the death toll could rise.

"The base was destroyed, and the rescue teams who arrived at the site were also targeted," one of the officials said.

He added that it remained unclear who was behind the attack. But the Iran-backed faction said in a statement that a "Zionist-American aggression" targeted their fighters, though it did not provide a death toll.

Iraq has long been a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran, with the country's successive governments struggling to balance relations between the two rivals.

After decades of conflicts, it had recently regained some stability, but it remains volatile with increasingly influential armed groups operating outside the state's control.

Iraq was immediately dragged into the Middle East war triggered when the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

The base that was hit on Thursday belongs to the Hashed al-Shaabi or the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a former paramilitary group now integrated into the regular army.

The Hashed also encompasses brigades from Iran-backed groups, which have been repeatedly targeted in attacks blamed on the United States and Israel since the start of the war.

The contingent on the base is made up of members of Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya.

Iraq's national security advisor Qassem al-Araji mourned in a post on X dozens "of martyrs and wounded" from the Hashed forces in what he described as a "terrorist attack".


Indonesia Minister Says Gaza Deployment Hinges on Board of Peace Dynamic

Indonesia's Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin speaks to journalists following his meeting with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 12, 2026. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan     TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Indonesia's Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin speaks to journalists following his meeting with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 12, 2026. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
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Indonesia Minister Says Gaza Deployment Hinges on Board of Peace Dynamic

Indonesia's Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin speaks to journalists following his meeting with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 12, 2026. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan     TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Indonesia's Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin speaks to journalists following his meeting with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 12, 2026. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Indonesia's deployments for the international security force in Gaza would ‌depend ‌on ​the current ‌dynamic ⁠of ​the Board ⁠of Peace, its defense minister said on Thursday.

Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin ⁠told reporters ‌Indonesia ‌had ​been prepared ‌to send ‌20,000 troops for the force but was ‌now ready to deploy 8,000, introduced ⁠gradually, ⁠adding that other countries had pledged to send lower numbers.

The Board of Peace (BoP) is an international organization established by US President Donald Trump, chaired by him for life, and formally instituted in January 2026. Its primary purpose is to oversee the implementation of the Gaza peace plan, including managing ceasefire processes, coordinating reconstruction, mobilizing international resources, ensuring accountability, and facilitating the transition of Gaza from conflict to stability.