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Lenderking Intensifies Efforts to Expand Truce in Yemen

The meeting between Saudi Ambassador to Yemen, Mohammad Al Jaber, and US Envoy Tim Lenderking, in Riyadh on Monday (SPA)
The meeting between Saudi Ambassador to Yemen, Mohammad Al Jaber, and US Envoy Tim Lenderking, in Riyadh on Monday (SPA)
    Riyad, Aden - Omar al-Badwi, Ali Rabih
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Lenderking Intensifies Efforts to Expand Truce in Yemen

The meeting between Saudi Ambassador to Yemen, Mohammad Al Jaber, and US Envoy Tim Lenderking, in Riyadh on Monday (SPA)
The meeting between Saudi Ambassador to Yemen, Mohammad Al Jaber, and US Envoy Tim Lenderking, in Riyadh on Monday (SPA)

US Envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking has intensified his meetings with Gulf, Saudi and Yemeni officials, with the aim to support the efforts of UN Envoy Hans Grundberg to consolidate the truce and launch a comprehensive political process.

In this context, the Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Nayef Al-Hajraf, called on the international community to support the Yemeni Leadership Council and intensify pressure on the Houthis, in order to achieve security and peace in Yemen, and to engage in a political solution to the crisis in accordance with UN references.

His comments came during a meeting with Lenderking on Monday in Riyadh, as part of the US envoy’s tour in the region.

The two sides underlined the need to support all international efforts to enhance the security, stability and peace of Yemen, and to consolidate the truce announced by the UN special envoy.

Also on Monday, the ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to Yemen, the supervisor of the Saudi Program for the Development and Reconstruction, Mohammad bin Saeed Al Jaber, met in Riyadh with Lenderking, in the presence of US Ambassador to Yemen Steven Fagin.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported that the meeting stressed the importance of maintaining the UN-sponsored truce, and the need to reopen the roads leading to Taiz to alleviate human suffering.

They two sides emphasized the need to reach a permanent ceasefire in Yemen in order to launch the political process between the Yemeni government and the Houthis.

The head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, received at his residence in Riyadh the US envoy and Fagin to discuss the latest developments in the country and the international efforts coordinated with the United Nations to revive the peace track.

Saba news agency quoted Lenderking as praising “the recent exceptional presidential and government decisions that included facilitating the entry of oil derivatives ships to the ports of Hodeidah despite the Houthi militia’s obstacles…”

Lenderking also underlined the United States’ keenness to “support the reforms led by the Presidential Leadership Council and the government,” official Yemeni sources reported.

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Israel Warns Lebanese against Returning to Area at Border

This picture taken from Lebanon's southern village of Shaqra on January 25, 2025 shows an Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moving along a road on the outskirts of the village of Mais al-Jabal along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. (AFP)
This picture taken from Lebanon's southern village of Shaqra on January 25, 2025 shows an Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moving along a road on the outskirts of the village of Mais al-Jabal along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. (AFP)
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Israel Warns Lebanese against Returning to Area at Border

This picture taken from Lebanon's southern village of Shaqra on January 25, 2025 shows an Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moving along a road on the outskirts of the village of Mais al-Jabal along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. (AFP)
This picture taken from Lebanon's southern village of Shaqra on January 25, 2025 shows an Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moving along a road on the outskirts of the village of Mais al-Jabal along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. (AFP)

The Israeli army on Saturday warned residents of dozens of Lebanese villages near the border against returning until further notice, a day after Israel said its forces would remain in south Lebanon beyond a Sunday deadline for their departure.

A ceasefire that ended last year's war between Hezbollah and Israel stipulated that Israeli forces should withdraw as the Iran-backed group's weapons and fighters are removed from the south and the Lebanese army deploys. The deal, brokered by Washington and Paris, set a 60-day period which ends on Sunday.

But Israel said on Friday the terms had not been fully enforced by the Lebanese state, meaning Israeli troops would stay beyond Sunday, without saying for how long.

Lebanon's US-backed military on Saturday accused Israel of procrastinating in its withdrawal.

In a statement on social media platform X, the Israeli military posted a map showing an area of the south containing dozens of villages and reminding residents that until further notice they are forbidden from returning to their homes.

"Anyone who moves south of this line puts themselves in danger," the statement said.

The line stretches from Shebaa, less than 2 km (1.5 miles) from the border in the east, to Mansouri in the west - about 10 km (6 miles) from the border.

The ceasefire ended more than a year of hostilities which were triggered by the Gaza war and peaked in a major Israeli offensive against Hezbollah, which uprooted more than a million people in Lebanon and left the group badly weakened.

The Israeli military says it has been seizing Hezbollah weapons and dismantling its infrastructure in the south.

The White House said on Friday that a short, temporary ceasefire extension was urgently needed.

French President Emmanuel Macron told his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun that he was making contacts to maintain the ceasefire and complete the implementation of the agreement, the Lebanese presidency said in a statement.

Aoun stressed to Macron the need to oblige Israel to implement the deal to preserve stability in the south.

Hezbollah, which suffered major blows in the war, said on Thursday that any delay of Israel's withdrawal would be an unacceptable breach of the deal and put the onus on the Lebanese state to act. Hezbollah said the Lebanese state would have to deal with such a violation "through all means and methods guaranteed by international charters".

Israel said its campaign against Hezbollah aimed to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people forced by Hezbollah rocket fire to leave their homes in northern Israel.

The Lebanese army, in a statement issued on Saturday, urged Lebanese residents to wait before heading into the border region, citing the presence of mines and unexploded Israeli ordnance.

The army said it had continued to implement the plan to strengthen its deployment south of the Litani River since the ceasefire came into effect.

"Delays occurred in a number of the phases as a result of procrastination in the withdrawal by the Israeli enemy, which complicated the mission of the army's deployment," the statement said. The army "maintains its readiness to complete its deployment as soon as the Israeli enemy withdraws".