Yemeni Government Prepares to Confront Houthi Intransigence

Yemeni cabinet meeting (Saba)
Yemeni cabinet meeting (Saba)
TT

Yemeni Government Prepares to Confront Houthi Intransigence

Yemeni cabinet meeting (Saba)
Yemeni cabinet meeting (Saba)

The Yemeni government is preparing for all possibilities to confront Houthi intransigence, Prime Minister Maeen Abdul-Malik said, calling for increasing its level of readiness.

Abdul-Malik said that using the truce to serve Iran's agenda is unacceptable.

He was speaking at the cabinet meeting in Aden, which discussed several political, military, economic, and service issues and government reform.

According to Saba news agency, the Prime Minister briefed the cabinet on the most recent developments, including the UN and international moves to extend the humanitarian ceasefire.

The cabinet asserted its firm position on compelling the Houthi militias to open Taiz roads, pay employees' salaries from the revenues of Hodeidah ports, and release all abductees and prisoners.

The government stressed the need to boost its preparedness for all possibilities until the state is restored and the Houthis end their coup.

The militias continue to defy the international community and the Yemeni people's will through their failure to implement the terms of the UN armistice and continue their military mobilization, said the cabinet.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, along with the US, EU, and regional countries, seek to extend the Yemeni truce, which expires on Oct. 2.

Yemeni sources said the Houthis will likely continue their intransigence in closing Taiz crossings and the roads between the provinces, seeking to prepare for another round of fighting.

The head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, hopes that his participation in the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly will lead to mobilizing political and economic support from world leaders.

Alimi is expected to deliver a speech on Thursday, according to official sources.

Meanwhile, the Houthi militia continues to obstruct all international efforts on the issue of prisoners and abductees while continuing its military parades and imposing levies and royalties to finance its war efforts.

The Yemeni army confirmed Wednesday that two soldiers were injured in a Houthi bombing on its positions in Taiz after a soldier was killed in a drone attack west of the city.

The media center of the Taiz military axis stated that it had monitored 17 violations of the UN truce, including repelling an attempt to infiltrate its positions on the al-Aqroud front, southeast of the city.

During the truce that began on Apr. 2, the Houthi militia recruited thousands of militants, redeployed them, and continued smuggling Iranian weapons into the country.

According to the Yemeni army, the Iranian-backed Houthis committed on Sunday 127 violations of the UN truce on various fronts.



Relatives of Bashar Assad Arrested as They Tried to Fly Out of Lebanon, Officials Say

A torn poster of Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad hangs near the flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, in Daraa, Syria, December 27, 2024. (Reuters)
A torn poster of Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad hangs near the flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, in Daraa, Syria, December 27, 2024. (Reuters)
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Relatives of Bashar Assad Arrested as They Tried to Fly Out of Lebanon, Officials Say

A torn poster of Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad hangs near the flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, in Daraa, Syria, December 27, 2024. (Reuters)
A torn poster of Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad hangs near the flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, in Daraa, Syria, December 27, 2024. (Reuters)

The wife and daughter of one of deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad ’s cousins were arrested Friday at the Beirut airport, where they attempted to fly out with allegedly forged passports, Lebanese judicial and security officials said. Assad’s uncle departed the day before.

Rasha Khazem, the wife of Duraid Assad — the son of former Syrian Vice President Rifaat Assad, the uncle of Bashar Assad — and their daughter, Shams, were smuggled illegally into Lebanon and were trying to fly to Egypt when they were arrested, according to five Lebanese officials familiar with the case.

They were being detained by Lebanese General Security. Rifaat had flown out the day before on his real passport and was not stopped, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Swiss federal prosecutors in March indicted Rifaat on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering murder and torture more than four decades ago.

Rifaat Assad, the brother of Bashar Assad's father Hafez Assad, Syria's former ruler, led the artillery unit that shelled the city of Hama and killed thousands, earning him the nickname the “Butcher of Hama.”

Earlier this year, Rifaat Assad was indicted in Switzerland for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with Hama.

Tens of thousands of Syrians are believed to have entered Lebanon illegally on the night of Assad’s fall earlier this month, when insurgent forces entered Damascus.

The Lebanese security and judicial officials said that more than 20 members of the former Syrian Army’s notorious 4th Division, military intelligence officers and others affiliated with Assad’s security forces were arrested earlier in Lebanon. Some of them were arrested when they attempted to sell their weapons.

Lebanon’s public prosecution office also received an Interpol notice requesting the arrest of Jamil al-Hassan, the former director of Syrian intelligence under Assad. Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati previously told Reuters that Lebanon would cooperate with the Interpol request to arrest al-Hassan.