Tariq Saleh Warns: War is an Option if Houthis Wasted Peace Opportunities

The commander of the National Resistance Forces, and member of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), Brigadier General Tariq Saleh (Saba)
The commander of the National Resistance Forces, and member of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), Brigadier General Tariq Saleh (Saba)
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Tariq Saleh Warns: War is an Option if Houthis Wasted Peace Opportunities

The commander of the National Resistance Forces, and member of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), Brigadier General Tariq Saleh (Saba)
The commander of the National Resistance Forces, and member of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), Brigadier General Tariq Saleh (Saba)

The commander of the National Resistance Forces and member of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), Brigadier General Tariq Saleh, warned that war would be an option if the Houthi militias continued to waste peace opportunities.

The Council, led by Rashad al-Alimi, seeks to give an opportunity to international and regional efforts to launch a comprehensive negotiated political process that leads to ending the coup.

Yemeni official sources reported that Saleh, the son of former president Ali Abdallah Saleh, inspected several training camps of the Republican Guard Brigades and military sites on the front lines on the western coast.

Saba news agency reported that Saleh stressed that Yemenis' primary goals are to restore state institutions and the capital, achieve a just, comprehensive, and sustainable peace, protect the republic's values, and preserve the rights of the people.

He indicated that this state of "neither peace nor war" must end and would not continue indefinitely, adding that the Yemeni people would ensure the restoration of the state.

The official asserted that Houthi violations and crimes against civilians would not be tolerated and would be met firmly, reiterating that any peaceful solution through international efforts must first preserve the sacrifices of the Yemeni people and guarantee their right to govern themselves.

He warned that any proposed solutions outside the scope of maintaining the peoples' rights would not be accepted under any justification.

Saleh stressed that security units carefully monitor all hostile Houthi movements in the Red Sea, threatening global navigation security.

He lauded the tremendous efforts of the coalition that supports legitimacy led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to support the Yemeni people.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Defense, Lt. Gen. Mohsen Mohammed al-Daeri, received a British military delegation in Aden and discussed ways to enhance cooperation in combating terrorism and smuggling.

Official sources noted that Daeri referred to the continuous Iranian smuggling of weapons to the Houthi militia, saying it clearly indicated that the group aimed to exploit the ceasefire and rejected international efforts to establish peace.

He noted that the Houthi group cooperates al-Qaeda and ISIS, referring to the exchange deal that released detainees between the three groups.

The Minister urged the international community to exert real pressure on the Houthi militia to submit to peace according to the three terms of reference for peace represented by the Gulf initiative, its executive mechanism, outcomes of the national dialogue, and relevant UN resolutions, mainly resolution 2216.



US Charges Iran Guards Captain in 2022 Killing of American in Iraq

Smog obscures the skyline in Tehran, Iran, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
Smog obscures the skyline in Tehran, Iran, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
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US Charges Iran Guards Captain in 2022 Killing of American in Iraq

Smog obscures the skyline in Tehran, Iran, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
Smog obscures the skyline in Tehran, Iran, 18 December 2024. (EPA)

The US Justice Department said on Friday it had charged a captain in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards with murder and terrorism offenses in the 2022 death of American Stephen Troell in Iraq.

Mohammad Reza Nouri, 36, helped plan an attack on Troell, 45, who was working at an English language institute in central Baghdad, according to a complaint unsealed in US Federal Court in Manhattan.

The attack was carried out in retaliation for the US killing of the Revolutionary Guards' top commander Qassem Soleimani in a 2020 drone strike, according to the complaint.

"The Department of Justice will not tolerate terrorists and authoritarian regimes targeting and murdering Americans anywhere in the world," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Nouri is already in custody in Iraq after being convicted, along with four Iraqis, in that country for Troell's murder. All five were sentenced to life in prison in Iraq last year.

Nouri is facing eight charges in US court, including murder of a US national and providing material support to terrorism resulting in death. The United States considers the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

It was not yet clear if Nouri had an attorney. Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The complaint accuses Nouri of collecting personal information on Troell, whom he appears to have believed was an American or Israeli intelligence officer, and recruiting operatives to target him.

Troell was shot and killed on Nov. 7, 2022, after a heavily armed gunman forced him to stop while he was driving home with his wife, according to US authorities.