Yemen Urges Diplomatic Missions to Resume Work in Aden

Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak with European ambassadors (EU in Yemen)
Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak with European ambassadors (EU in Yemen)
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Yemen Urges Diplomatic Missions to Resume Work in Aden

Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak with European ambassadors (EU in Yemen)
Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak with European ambassadors (EU in Yemen)

The Yemeni Foreign Ministry urged diplomatic missions to resume their work from the interim capital, Aden, pledging to provide all facilities to enhance the state's role.

Foreign diplomatic missions closed their embassies and evacuated their staff from Sanaa after the Houthi militia took control of the capital in September 2014.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak revealed that Ministry's office in Aden would resume its diplomatic and institutional activities in full force.

Bin Mubarak visited the new headquarters of the Foreign Ministry in Aden, accompanied by several European Ambassadors.

He pointed out that the resumption of work in the new building would encourage diplomatic missions to carry out their work from Aden.

The FM reaffirmed that achieving peace in Yemen under the three terms of reference comes at the top of the priorities of the Presidential Leadership Council and the Yemeni government.

According to bin Mubarak, the Council and the government are working to improve public services and promote living and economic conditions despite all the challenges and humanitarian problems the country is experiencing due to the Houthi aggression.

He announced that the militias did not stop their military assault in various Yemeni regions, stressing the need to pressure Houthis and support the Presidential Council politically and economically to achieve peace.

In turn, the chief of the European Union Mission to Yemen, Gabriel Vinales, stressed the importance of renewing and expanding the UN-led truce.

Vinales reaffirmed firm support for the UN Sec-Gen Special Envoy's efforts to bring peace to Yemen.

Later, the ambassadors met Minister of Defense Lt-Gen Mohsen al-Daeri and commended the government's commitment to lasting peace. They expressed support for efforts to unify military and security formations.



Syria Minister Says Open to Talks with Kurds, But Ready to Use 'Force'

 Syria's new Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra attends an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
Syria's new Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra attends an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Syria Minister Says Open to Talks with Kurds, But Ready to Use 'Force'

 Syria's new Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra attends an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
Syria's new Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra attends an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 19, 2025. (Reuters)

Syria's defense minister said Wednesday that Damascus was open to talks with Kurdish-led forces on their integration into the national army but stood ready to use force should negotiations fail.

"The door to negotiation with the (Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces) is currently open," Murhaf Abu Qasra told reporters.

"If we have to use force, we will be ready."

Last month, an official told AFP that an SDF delegation had met Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who heads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that spearheaded the opposition offensive that ousted Bashar al-Assad.

Sharaa had told Al Arabiya television that Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the new national army so that weapons are "in the hands of the state alone".

The US-backed SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted the ISIS group from its last territory in Syria in 2019.

The group controls much of the oil-producing northeast, where it has enjoyed de facto autonomy for more than a decade.

"They offered us oil, but we don't want oil, we want the institutions and the borders," Abu Qasra said.

Ankara, which has long had ties with HTS, accuses the main component of the SDF, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with Türkiye's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

In an offensive that coincided with the HTS-led advance on Damascus, Turkish-backed armed groups in northern Syria seized several areas from the SDF late last year.

Earlier this month, then US secretary of state Antony Blinken said he was working to address Turkish concerns and dissuade it from stepping up its offensive against the SDF.

UN envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen told reporters in Damascus on Wednesday that he hoped the warring parties would allow time for a diplomatic solution "so that this does not end in a full military confrontation".

Pedersen said Washington and Ankara "have a key role to play in supporting this" effort.

"We are looking for the beginning of a new Syria and hopefully that will also include the northeast in a peaceful manner," he said.