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Saudi Support Raises Efficiency of Yemeni Airports

Aden International Airport, SDRPY
Aden International Airport, SDRPY
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Saudi Support Raises Efficiency of Yemeni Airports

Aden International Airport, SDRPY
Aden International Airport, SDRPY

The Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) contributions, especially the rehabilitation and development of Yemeni airports, constitute a vital arm for the Yemeni economy.

The rehabilitation of airports represents an essential contribution to improving development in Yemen. This is achieved by raising the level and efficiency of airports and the quality of services provided to travelers and companies operating in the field of aviation.

According to a special report obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat, SDRPY seeks to rehabilitate and develop airports to activate and build the capacities of Yemeni institutions, and to improve the level of infrastructure and basic services provided to the Yemeni people.

SDRPY projects contribute to achieving sustainable development by facilitating trade, tourism and humanitarian aid, which provides job opportunities and improves the standard of living by supporting social stability.

They also help in reaping economic benefits for Yemen by stimulating economic movement and increasing exports and trade.

Aden

Last January, SDRPY launched the first phase of one of its most important projects which is the rehabilitation and upgrading of the Aden International Airport.

The project will develop over three phases.

Phase I focuses on providing electricity, safety measures, and transportation. The external main gates and roads of the complex will be studied and redesigned, and passenger transport buses provided.

Phase II will consist of constructing and connecting vital service systems, such as telecommunications, navigation and air traffic control. Rehabilitation of the runway and taxi areas, gates, and tunnels connecting gates to aircraft will also be undertaken.

Phase III will focus on alignment of airport facilities and operations with ICAO standards in all areas, including safety, electricity supply, interior and exterior infrastructure, air traffic control and navigation.

Al Ghaydah, the capital city of Al Mahrah Governorate

SDRPY succeeded in upgrading and developing Al Ghaydah Airport in Al Mahrah Governorate. The project included equipping the facility with all communications systems, international maritime requirements. It also developed and restored waiting, departure and inspection halls, equipping them with all devices necessary.

The program conducted several tests of the air navigation systems for Al-Ghaydah Airport, in cooperation with internationally accredited companies, which included surveying the airport.

SDRPY equipped Al-Ghaydah Airport with international navigation systems that comply with the specifications of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a body which regulates air traffic.

Socotra

Last April, SDRPY launched two new projects in Socotra governorate in support of transport and airport sectors, and to complete vital development projects in the governorate.

The first project is to provide public transportation buses to raise the efficiency of the transportation sector services within the island, and to serve the people by facilitating their transportation and improving their daily lives.

The second was launched in support of Socotra Airport, by providing everything necessary for the success of the safety plans inside the facility, by preparing an advanced fire truck operating with the latest technologies, which comply with the recommendations of airport safety and firefighting from the ICAO, in addition to providing an ambulance with all medical and emergency supplies.

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Arab World

Three Dead After Flooding Hits Northwest Syria

A child watches as civil defense teams open flooded roads in Idlib. (SANA)
A child watches as civil defense teams open flooded roads in Idlib. (SANA)
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Three Dead After Flooding Hits Northwest Syria

A child watches as civil defense teams open flooded roads in Idlib. (SANA)
A child watches as civil defense teams open flooded roads in Idlib. (SANA)

Two children and a Syrian Red Crescent volunteer have died as a result of flooding in the country's northwest, state media said on Sunday.

The heavy rains in Syria's Idlib region and the coastal province of Latakia have also wreaked havoc in displacement camps, according to authorities, who have launched rescue operations and set up shelters in the areas.

State news agency SANA reported "the death of a Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer and the injury of four others as they carried out their humanitarian duties" in Latakia province.

The Syrian Red Crescent said in a statement that the "a mission vehicle veered into a valley", killing a female volunteer and injuring four others, as they went to rescue people stranded by flash floods.

"A fifth volunteer was injured while attempting to rescue a child trapped by the floodwaters," it added.

SANA said two children died on Saturday "due to heavy flooding that swept through the Ain Issa area" in the north of Latakia province.

Authorities said Sunday they were working to clear roads in displacement camps in flooded parts of Idlib province.

The emergencies and disaster management ministry said 14 displacement camps in part of Idlib province were affected, with tents swamped, belongings swept away and around 300 families directly impacted.

Around seven million people remain internally displaced in Syria, according to the United Nations refugee agency, some 1.4 million of them living in camps and sites in the country's northwest and northeast.

The December 2024 ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad after more than 13 years of civil war revived hopes for many to return home, but the destruction of housing and a lack of basic infrastructure in heavily damaged areas has been a major barrier.

Arab World

Hamas’s Meshal Rejects Disarmament or 'Foreign Rule'

Boys walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Boys walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Hamas’s Meshal Rejects Disarmament or 'Foreign Rule'

Boys walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Boys walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

A senior Hamas leader said Sunday that the Palestinian movement would not surrender its weapons nor accept foreign intervention in Gaza, pushing back against US and Israeli demands.

"Criminalizing the resistance, its weapons, and those who carried it out is something we should not accept," Khaled Meshal said at a conference in Doha.

"As long as there is occupation, there is resistance. Resistance is a right of peoples under occupation ... something nations take pride in," said Meshal, who previously headed the group.

A US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza is in its second phase, which foresees that demilitarization of the territory -- including the disarmament of Hamas -- along with a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Hamas has repeatedly said that disarmament is a red line, although it has indicated it could consider handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian governing authority.

Israeli officials say that Hamas still has around 20,000 fighters and about 60,000 Kalashnikovs in Gaza.

A Palestinian technocratic committee has been set up with a goal of taking over the day-to-day governance in the battered Gaza Strip, but it remains unclear whether, or how, it will address the issue of demilitarization.

The committee operates under the so-called "Board of Peace," an initiative launched by US President Donald Trump.

Originally conceived to oversee the Gaza truce and post-war reconstruction, the board's mandate has since expanded, prompting concerns among critics that it could evolve into a rival to the United Nations.

Trump unveiled the board at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos last month, where leaders and officials from nearly two dozen countries joined him in signing its founding charter.

Alongside the Board of Peace, Trump also created a Gaza Executive Board - an advisory panel to the Palestinian technocratic committee - comprising international figures including US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as well as former British prime minister Tony Blair.

On Sunday, Meshal urged the Board of Peace to adopt what he called a "balanced approach" that would allow for Gaza's reconstruction and the flow of aid to its roughly 2.2 million residents, while warning that Hamas would "not accept foreign rule" over Palestinian territory.

"We adhere to our national principles and reject the logic of guardianship, external intervention, or the return of a mandate in any form," Meshal said.
"Palestinians are to govern Palestinians. Gaza belongs to the people of Gaza and to Palestine. We will not accept foreign rule," he added.

Arab World

Rescue Teams Search for Survivors in Building Collapse that Killed at Least 2 in Northern Lebanon

A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
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Rescue Teams Search for Survivors in Building Collapse that Killed at Least 2 in Northern Lebanon

A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

At least two people were killed and four rescued from the rubble of a multistory apartment building that collapsed Sunday in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, state media reported.

Rescue teams were continuing to dig through the rubble. It was not immediately clear how many people were in the building when it fell.

The bodies pulled out were of a child and a woman, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Dozens of people crowded around the site of the crater left by the collapsed building, with some shooting in the air.

The building was in the neighborhood of Bab Tabbaneh, one of the poorest areas in Lebanon’s second largest city, where residents have long complained of government neglect and shoddy infrastructure. Building collapses are not uncommon in Tripoli due to poor building standards, according to The AP news.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry announced that those injured in the collapse would receive treatment at the state’s expense.

The national syndicate for property owners in a statement called the collapse the result of “blatant negligence and shortcomings of the Lebanese state toward the safety of citizens and their housing security,” and said it is “not an isolated incident.”

The syndicate called for the government to launch a comprehensive national survey of buildings at risk of collapse.