Yemen’s Alimi Urges Europe to Follow Washington’s Example and Blacklist Houthis

Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi meets with EU Ambassador to Yemen Gabriel Munuera Vinals in Riyadh on Monday. (Saba)
Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi meets with EU Ambassador to Yemen Gabriel Munuera Vinals in Riyadh on Monday. (Saba)
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Yemen’s Alimi Urges Europe to Follow Washington’s Example and Blacklist Houthis

Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi meets with EU Ambassador to Yemen Gabriel Munuera Vinals in Riyadh on Monday. (Saba)
Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi meets with EU Ambassador to Yemen Gabriel Munuera Vinals in Riyadh on Monday. (Saba)

Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi urged on Monday the European Union to designate the Iran-backed Houthi militias as terrorist.

The United States had re-designated the Houthis as terrorist earlier this month in wake of the attacks they have been carrying out against commercial traffic in the Red Sea.

As of Monday, the Houthis have carried out 34 missile and drone attacks against vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in response to Israel's war on Gaza.

Since January 12, the United States has carried out 10 strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen in retaliation to their attacks.

Meanwhile, Denmark on Monday sent a frigate to the Red Sea, where it will participate in a US-led coalition to safeguard commercial traffic against the Houthi attacks.

Denmark, home to shipping company Maersk, is sending the 139-meter Iver Huitfeldt frigate to the area as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian formed last month to protect merchant vessels.

“If you think that the answer to the Houthis is to simply allow them to terrorize free world trade, you are on the wrong track," Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told reporters on board the frigate before it departed the Korsor naval base.

"That is also why we, together with the Americans and the British, are now showing responsibility and sending a signal that we will not tolerate what is happening,” the minister said.

Alimi received in Riyadh on Monday European Union Ambassador to Yemen Gabriel Munuera Vinals for talks on the latest local developments and the opportunities to resume the United Nations-mediated efforts to revive the political process.

They also tackled the impact the terrorist Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are having on international security and peace and the Yemeni people, reported the state news agency Saba.

Vinals briefed Alimi on the EU’s position on the Houthi escalation, adding that it continues to fully support the efforts of UN envoy Hans Grundberg to launch a comprehensive political process.

Alimi praised Europe for the support it has shown the PLC, government and Yemeni people.

He stressed however, the importance of the Europeans “taking punitive measures against the Houthi militias and designating them as a terrorist organization.”

Alimi had previously said the American and British strikes against the Houthis would not yield a solution to the crisis in Yemen. Rather, he underlined the need to support government forces as they seek to recapture Hodeidah and state institutions that have been seized by the Houthis.

On the ground, the Houthis have pursued military escalation. They launched attacks on liberated areas in the Saada and al-Jawf border regions.

The fiercest attack was reported in the Bihan area in the liberated Shabwa province.

The Giants Brigades clashed with the Houthis in Bihan, leaving some 20 of their members dead.

Commenting on the unrest, PLC member Faraj al-Bahsani said the militias “don't don’t believe in peace and want to drag the region towards conflict.”



49 Killed by Israeli Strikes in Gaza over 24 Hours, as Mediators Scramble to Restart Ceasefire

Palestinians inspect the damage at Al Farabi school following an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, 25 April 2025. (EPA)
Palestinians inspect the damage at Al Farabi school following an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, 25 April 2025. (EPA)
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49 Killed by Israeli Strikes in Gaza over 24 Hours, as Mediators Scramble to Restart Ceasefire

Palestinians inspect the damage at Al Farabi school following an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, 25 April 2025. (EPA)
Palestinians inspect the damage at Al Farabi school following an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, 25 April 2025. (EPA)

 

At least 49 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours, according to health officials, as Arab mediators scrambled to restart a ceasefire.
An airstrike in a neighborhood in western Gaza City early Saturday morning, flattened a three-story house, killing 10 people, according to a cameraman cooperating with The Associated Press. The number was confirmed by Gaza’s Health Ministry, along with three more people who were killed in the Shati refugee camp along the city's shoreline.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the strikes.
The attacks come as Hamas said on Saturday that it sent a high-level delegation to Cairo to try and get the stalled ceasefire back on track.
Israel ended a ceasefire with Hamas last month and has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas is destroyed, or disarmed and sent into exile. It says it will hold parts of Gaza indefinitely and implement President Donald Trump’s proposal for the resettlement of the population in other countries, which has been widely rejected internationally.
Hamas has said it will only release the dozens of hostages it holds in return for Palestinian prisoners, a complete Israeli withdrawal and a lasting ceasefire, as called for in the now-defunct agreement reached in January.
Hamas said Saturday that the delegation will discuss with Egyptian officials the group's vision to end the war, which includes the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and reconstruction.
Earlier this week, other Hamas officials arrived in Cairo to discuss a proposal that would include a five-to-seven year truce and the release of all remaining hostages, officials said.
Egypt and Qatar are still developing the proposal, which would include the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to an Egyptian official and a Hamas official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Meanwhile, Israel has continued its nearly two-month blockade on Gaza even as aid groups warn that supplies are dwindling.
On Friday, the World Food Program said its food stocks in Gaza had run out, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the territory. The WFP said in a statement that it delivered the last of its stocks to charity kitchens that it supports around Gaza. It said those kitchens are expected to run out of food in the coming days.
About 80% of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million relies primarily on charity kitchens for food, because other sources have shut down under Israel’s blockade, according to the UN The WFP has been supporting 47 kitchens that distribute 644,000 hot meals a day, WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told The Associated Press.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were fighters or civilians. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 of the Hamas group, without providing evidence.
The war began when the Hamas-led group stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. The militants still have 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.