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Sniping of Government Liaison Officer Threatens Stockholm Agreement in Yemen

Joint observation post established by the Head of the United Nations Mission in support of the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA) Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha of India last October 
Joint observation post established by the Head of the United Nations Mission in support of the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA) Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha of India last October 
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Sniping of Government Liaison Officer Threatens Stockholm Agreement in Yemen

Joint observation post established by the Head of the United Nations Mission in support of the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA) Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha of India last October 
Joint observation post established by the Head of the United Nations Mission in support of the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA) Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha of India last October 

Pro-government liaison officers at joint observation posts in Yemen’s Hodeidah abandoned their positions after a Houthi militia sniper targeted one of them, military sources said.

Spokesman for the government's joint forces in Hodeidah Wadah Al-Dubaish said that a Houthi sniper shot at liaison officer Mohammed Abdurrab Sharaf Al-Soleihi, who is now at the intensive care unit of a local hospital.

As a result of Houthi actions, government liaison officers suspended their participation at joint observation posts, the single achievement accomplished by the UN-sponsored Stockholm Agreement in 13 months.

Dubaish, speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, pointed out that there will be a meeting between government representatives and the deputy head of the UN mission to discuss the serious Houthi escalation.

Liaison officers are pressing for a condemnation of the militias’ action.

Dubaish suggested that the UN mission will be unable to do anything to deter the Houthi group's violations. This threatens the resumption of the military operation to liberate Hodeidah and the cancellation of the Stockholm Agreement.

The military spokesman accused senior Houthi liaison officer Ahmed Jaber of controlling the UN mission’s decision and preventing it from issuing any statement condemning the militias.

The creation of five joint observation posts is the sole progress achieved by the Stockholm Agreement, despite its signing back in December 2018.

More so, Yemeni politicians have accused the head of the United Nations Mission in support of the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA), Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha, of “favoring” Houthis, and “turning a blind eye” to their booby-trapped boats and naval mines in the Red Sea.

“Coalition airstrikes hinder the peace process and jeopardize the implementation of the Hodeidah deal,” Guha has said in a statement.

On Sunday, the Arab Coalition said its aircraft had carried out “typical operation against Houthi military targets in Salif district,” to the north of Hodeidah city.

“The targeted sites were used for preparing and carrying out hostile acts and terrorist operations threatening international navigation and trade routes in Bab al-Mandab Strait and south of the Red Sea,” the Coalition said in a statement.

Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani expressed surprise at Guha’s statement regarding the qualitative operation carried out by the Coalition against Houthi military targets in Salif. The attack destroyed sites used to assemble and launch bomb-rigged boats that constituted a threat to maritime navigation.

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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)

Israel is considering options to respond to repeated attacks fired from Yemen in the past few days, the latest of which was a Houthi missile strike that injured more than a dozen people in Tel Aviv.
But military experts say Israel should first consider an intelligence plan for confronting the new front after it faced significant difficulties in both defending against and responding to the Houthi attacks.
On Saturday morning, Houthis launched a missile that triggered sirens throughout central Israel at 3:44 am. It was the second attack since Thursday.
Israel's military said the projectile landed in Tel Aviv's southern Jaffa area, adding that attempts to intercept a missile from Yemen failed.
“The incident is still being thoroughly investigated,” the army said, adding that following initial investigations by the Israeli Air Force and Home Front Command, “some of the conclusions have already been implemented, both regarding interception and early warning.”
Israeli military experts say the recent Houthi attacks have revealed serious security gaps in Israel's air defense systems.
“The pressing question now is why none of the other of Israel’s air defense layers managed to intercept the warhead,” wrote Yedioth Ahronoth's Ron Ben-Yishai. “The likely explanation is the late detection and the flat trajectory, which prevented the operation of all available defense apparatus.”
He said these incidents might expose a critical vulnerability in the army’s air defense system protecting Israel’s civilian and military home front.
According to Ben-Yishai, two main reasons might explain Saturday’s interception failure.
The first is that the missile was launched in a “flattened” ballistic trajectory, possibly from an unexpected direction.
As a result, Israeli defenses may not have identified it in time, leading to its late discovery and insufficient time for interceptors to operate.
He said the second, and more likely scenario is that Iran has developed a maneuverable warhead.
Such a warhead separates from the missile during the final third of its trajectory and maneuvers mid-flight—executing pre-programmed course changes—to hit its designated target, he wrote.
And while Israel has launched initial investigations into the failure of Israeli defense systems to intercept the missiles, it is now examining the nature, date and location of its response.
When Houthis launched their first missile attack on Israel last Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned them, saying, “The Houthis will learn the hard way.”
But Israeli political analyst Avi Ashkenazi wrote in the Maariv newspaper that Israel should look at reality with open eyes and say out loud that it cannot deal with the Houthi threat from Yemen, and has failed to face them.
Last Thursday, 14 Israeli Air Force fighter jets, alongside refuelers and spy planes, flew some 2,000 kilometers and dropped over 60 munitions on Houthi “military targets” along Yemen’s western coast and near the capital Sanaa.
The targets included fuel and oil depots, two power stations, and eight tugboats used at the Houthi-controlled ports.
But the Maariv newspaper warned about the increasing involvement of Iran in supporting the Houthi forces.
“Iran has invested more in the Houthis in recent weeks following the collapse of the Shiite axis, making the Houthi movement a leader of this axis,” the newspaper noted.
Underscoring the failures of Israel’s air defense systems, Maariv said the “Arrow” missile defense system, Israel's main line of defense against ballistic missiles, had failed four times in a row to intercept missiles, including three launched from Yemen and one from Lebanon.
Yedioth Ahronoth's Ben-Yishai also warned that the threat posed by maneuvering warheads on Iran's heavy, long-range missiles would become existential for Israel should Iran succeed in developing nuclear warheads for these missiles.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 12 said that in recent months, the Middle East has changed beyond recognition.
The channel said that for the first time in more than half a century, a direct and threat-free air corridor has been opened to Iran through the Middle East. Israel will benefit from this corridor to launch almost daily attacks on the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, it said.
Channel 12 also reported that according to the Israeli military, the new threat-free corridor will help Israel launch a future attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
“From Israel's perspective, the fall of the Assad regime and the collapse of the Iranian ring of fire are changing the balance of power in the Middle East,” the report added.