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Houthi Conditions, US Pressure ahead of Expected Extension of Yemen Truce

A Yemeni motorcyclist drives through a flooded street following a heavy rainfall in Sana'a, Yemen, 01 August 2022. (EPA)
A Yemeni motorcyclist drives through a flooded street following a heavy rainfall in Sana'a, Yemen, 01 August 2022. (EPA)
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Houthi Conditions, US Pressure ahead of Expected Extension of Yemen Truce

A Yemeni motorcyclist drives through a flooded street following a heavy rainfall in Sana'a, Yemen, 01 August 2022. (EPA)
A Yemeni motorcyclist drives through a flooded street following a heavy rainfall in Sana'a, Yemen, 01 August 2022. (EPA)

Oman and the United States are continuing their efforts to extend the nationwide truce in Yemen for a second time.

United Nations envoy Hans Grundberg is expected to receive on Tuesday the legitimate government and the Iran-backed Houthi militias’ agreement to the extension.

The ceasefire ends on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the United States has kept up its pressure on the Presidential Leadership Council to agree to the truce renewal and agree to Grunberg’s new proposals.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Sunday with Presidential Leadership Council President Dr. Rashad al-Alimi "to reiterate the importance of the Yemeni government’s support for extending the UN-led truce to ease suffering, expand tangible benefits for Yemenis, and build toward a permanent ceasefire and a more comprehensive, inclusive political process," read a State Department statement.

"He noted that the truce provides the best opportunity for peace that Yemenis have had in years and reaffirmed President Joe Biden’s strong support for the Presidential Leadership Council, welcoming the leadership the Council has demonstrated thus far on the truce," it added.

"Blinken also expressed the United States’ desire to continue broader bilateral cooperation with the Republic of Yemen Government," it said.

On the Yemeni end, official sources said al-Alimi received a telephone call from Blinken to discuss the latest local developments and regional and international peace efforts.

The state news agency Saba said al-Alimi stressed his commitment to "fair and comprehensive peace based on the national, regional and international references, especially UN Security Council resolution 2216."

He hailed the efforts by the Saudi-led Arab coalition in reaching the truce and its restraint, along with that of the Presidential Council and government, towards the widespread Houthi violations.

The sources said al-Alimi supports the extension, but reminded Blinken of the Houthis’ dismal record in respecting them, stressing that they continue to shirk their commitments to the current agreement.

He cited their continued siege on Taiz city and other provinces, failure to pay the salaries of employees in regions under their control, stalling in carrying out prisoner swap understandings and tackling the issue of the Safer oil tanker.

Meanwhile, an Omani delegation arrived in Houthi-held Sanaa on Sunday for talks with militia leaders to extend the truce.

Houthi media said the delegation met with head of the coup council Mehdi al-Mashat, who "stressed that any truce must be accompanied with tangible improvement in the economic and humanitarian situation."

This includes the paying of salaries of public employees in what was interpreted as the Houthis’ shirking of their commitment to paying the wages from Hodeidah port revenues.

Mashat also reiterated the Houthi demand for the complete and immediate reopening of Sanaa airport and Hodeidah port.

Grundberg is hoping that the warring Yemeni parties would agree to a six-month extension of the truce, rather than two.

His call was advocated by 30 international aid agencies working in Yemen.

"During the past four months, ordinary Yemenis have experienced the longest period of calm in the country in over seven years," the groups said in a joint statement on Monday.

"Since the truce entered into force on April 2, reports of civilian casualties have dropped significantly."

The aid groups, including Yemeni and international organizations, urged "all parties to the conflict to adhere to and extend the agreement to protect civilians across the country".

International signatories included ACTED, Action Against Hunger, the International Rescue Committee, Islamic Relief, Oxfam and Save the Children.

"An extension of the truce, adhered to by all parties, would support further fuel shipments into the country, allow more people to benefit from commercial flights from Sanaa, and support humanitarian actors to reach those most in need," the groups said.

"Most importantly, it would protect the lives of ordinary Yemenis and open the door to longer-term peace", they added.

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Arab World

Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
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Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited heavily damaged towns near the Israeli border on Saturday, pledging reconstruction.

It was his first trip to the southern border area since the army said it finished disarming Hezbollah there, in January.

Swathes of south Lebanon's border areas remain in ruins and largely deserted more than a year after a US-brokered November 2024 ceasefire sought to end hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

Lebanon's government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army last month said it had completed the first phase of its plan to do so, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border about 30 kilometers (20 miles) further south.

Visiting Tayr Harfa, around three kilometers from the border, and nearby Yarine, Salam said frontier towns and villages had suffered "a true catastrophe".

He vowed authorities would begin key projects including restoring roads, communications networks and water in the two towns.

Locals gathered on the rubble of buildings to greet Salam and the delegation of accompanying officials in nearby Dhayra, some waving Lebanese flags.

In a meeting in Bint Jbeil, further east, with officials including lawmakers from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, Salam said authorities would "rehabilitate 32 kilometers of roads, reconnect the severed communications network, repair water infrastructure" and power lines in the district.

Last year, the World Bank announced it had approved $250 million to support Lebanon's post-war reconstruction, after estimating that it would cost around $11 billion in total.

Salam said funds including from the World Bank would be used for the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.

The second phase of the government's disarmament plan for Hezbollah concerns the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, around 40 kilometers south of Beirut.

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Despite the truce, Israel has kept up regular strikes on what it usually says are Hezbollah targets and maintains troops in five south Lebanon areas.

Lebanese officials have accused Israel of seeking to prevent reconstruction in the heavily damaged south with repeated strikes on bulldozers, excavators and prefabricated houses.

Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Friday said the reform of Lebanon's banking system needed to precede international funding for reconstruction efforts.

The French diplomat met Lebanon's army chief Rodolphe Haykal on Saturday, the military said.

Arab World

Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
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Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)

Iraq has so far received 2,225 ISIS group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.

They are among up to 7,000 ISIS detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at "ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities".

Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.

The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF's role in confronting ISIS had come to an end.

Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister's office, told AFP on Saturday that "Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition", which Washington has led since 2014 to fight IS.

He said they are being held in "strict, regular detention centers".

A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the "continued transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition".

On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.

- Iraq calls for repatriation -

ISIS seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.

Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the extremists.

In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offences.

Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.

On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military's operation.

In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said "the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist ISIS organization before the competent Iraqi courts".

Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.

Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.

Maan noted that "the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed".

Arab World

Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
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Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)

A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said.

The attack by the Rapid Support Forces occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.

The vehicle transported displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area of North Kordofan, the doctors’ group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants, the group said.

The doctors’ group urged the international community and rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.”

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war against the Sudanese military for control of the country for about three years.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

It created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes. It fueled disease outbreaks and pushed parts of the country into famine.