Yemen Urges Support for Legitimate Govt, Ending Houthi Ties to Iran

Foreign Minister Ahmed bin Awad bin Mubarak meets with Director of the Middle East and North Africa of German Foreign Office Dr. Tobias Tunkel.
Foreign Minister Ahmed bin Awad bin Mubarak meets with Director of the Middle East and North Africa of German Foreign Office Dr. Tobias Tunkel.
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Yemen Urges Support for Legitimate Govt, Ending Houthi Ties to Iran

Foreign Minister Ahmed bin Awad bin Mubarak meets with Director of the Middle East and North Africa of German Foreign Office Dr. Tobias Tunkel.
Foreign Minister Ahmed bin Awad bin Mubarak meets with Director of the Middle East and North Africa of German Foreign Office Dr. Tobias Tunkel.

Yemen’s legitimate government reiterated on Friday its call on the international community to provide it with political and economic support.

Foreign Minister Ahmed bin Awad bin Mubarak met on Friday with Director of the Middle East and North Africa of German Foreign Office Dr. Tobias Tunkel to discuss the latest developments in Yemen.

They addressed the efforts to end the war "caused by the Houthi aggression against the Yemeni people," the FM was quoted as saying by the state news agency Saba.

He underscored the need to provide the suitable conditions to achieve peace and support the legitimate government.

The officials tackled Iran’s obstructive role in Yemen and "the need for the Houthi militias to end their affiliations with it so that security and stability can be restored in the country."

Tunkel stressed Germany’s support to peace efforts in Yemen, saying it "stands by the country’s unity and territorial integrity."

Meanwhile, the government intensified efforts to combat the smuggling of Iranian weapons to the Houthis.

Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik met with the central bank governor, defense minister, commander of the second military zone, customs officials and others to address the smuggling.

The PM hailed the concerned authorities on their efforts and ordered that rewards be offered to the border employees and soldiers who seized the latest smuggled shipment.

He ordered that a mechanism be put in place to encourage employees and offer rewards for busting smuggling attempts.

The gatherers announced that more measures to combat the smuggling will be introduced.



US Drops $10 Million Reward for Syria’s al-Sharaa

US Drops $10 Million Reward for Syria’s al-Sharaa
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US Drops $10 Million Reward for Syria’s al-Sharaa

US Drops $10 Million Reward for Syria’s al-Sharaa

The Biden administration said Friday it has decided not to pursue a $10 million reward it had offered for the capture of Ahmad al-Sharaa, whose group led fighters that ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad earlier this month.

The announcement followed a meeting in Damascus between al-Sharaa and the top US diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, who led the first US diplomatic delegation into Syria since Assad’s ouster.

Al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, remains designated a foreign terrorist organization, and Leaf would not say if sanctions stemming from that designation would be eased.

However, she told reporters that Sharaa had committed to renouncing terrorism and as a result the US would no longer offer the reward.
Leaf said the US would make policy decisions based on actions and not words.

"It was a good first meeting. We will judge by the deeds, not just by words," Leaf said in a briefing and added that the US officials reiterated that Syria's new government should be inclusive. It should also ensure that terrorist groups cannot pose a threat, she said.
"Ahmed al-Sharaa committed to this," Leaf said. "So, based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing rewards for justice," she said, referring to a $10 million bounty that US had put on the HTS leader's head.

The US delegation also worked to uncover new information about US journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in 2012, and other American citizens who went missing under Assad.

US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, who was part of the delegation, said Washington would work with Syria's interim authorities to find Tice.

Carstens, who has been in the region since Assad's fall, said he has received a lot of information about Tice, but none of it had so far confirmed his fate one way or another.