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Badhib to Asharq Al-Awsat: Sensitive Yemen Govt Communications Taking Place Away from Houthis

Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and acting Minister of Telecommunications in the legitimate Yemeni government Dr. Waed Badhib. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and acting Minister of Telecommunications in the legitimate Yemeni government Dr. Waed Badhib. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Badhib to Asharq Al-Awsat: Sensitive Yemen Govt Communications Taking Place Away from Houthis

Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and acting Minister of Telecommunications in the legitimate Yemeni government Dr. Waed Badhib. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and acting Minister of Telecommunications in the legitimate Yemeni government Dr. Waed Badhib. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Amid fragile unofficial ceasefire in Yemen, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and acting Minister of Telecommunications in the legitimate government Dr. Waed Badhib said efforts are underway to restore the international community’s trust to resume the financing of development projects.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said efforts were also being made to “free the telecommunications sector” from the Iran-backed Houthi militias.

“Sensitive government communications are taking place away from the Houthis,” he stressed.

He noted United Nations reports that say that Yemen needs around 125 billion dollars to rebuild the country after the war with the Houthis.

The legitimate government needs 4 billion dollars to make up for the losses in the national currency, he added.

Speaking from the interim capital Aden, his hometown, he lamented the state of affairs in the services sector, especially in electricity.

He revealed that his ministry, in cooperation with the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen and Islamic Development Bank, will launch in coming weeks a new platform aimed at facilitating development operations in Yemen.

The platform will allow investors to clearly become informed about projects and needs in various regions and sectors, Badhib explained.

The minister highlighted the meetings that were held on Yemen in New York in January, which he said were important in supporting the government and recognizing that the Houthis were no longer just a threat to Yemen, but the world.

On the economic level, he noted that the meetings were a precursor to a donor conference, especially after the crisis in Yemen took on an international angle and the United States designating the Houthis as terrorist.

On UN operations in Yemen, Badhib heavily criticized the organization, saying there was ambiguity in its performance, especially when it comes to it Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator Julien Harneis.

He criticized his “weak” role in Yemen amid the challenges, notably the Houthis’ abduction of UN staff.

A World Food Program employee died in Houthi detention, the UN announced earlier this week. He was one of eight WFP staff who were abducted in January in the northern Saada province.

Badhib told Asharq Al-Awsat that the UN has not yet revealed a clear and tangible plan to secure the release of remaining staff.

All UN organizations will have enough protection in Aden and other liberated regions to ensure that they carry out their duties successfully, he went on to say.

In New York, the minister revealed that he had discussed with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres the issue of bank transfers to finance projects in liberated regions.

He said it was “strange” that after the Houthis’ terrorist designation, funds were still being transferred to the central bank in Sanaa to finance certain projects.

He underlined the need to deposit the funds in a bank that is recognized by the international community, warning that depositing them in banks in Houth-held Sanaa will scare off investors.

“Why is it taking the UN and resident coordinator so long to take a firm decision to relocate organizations and agencies to Aden” and use banks there? he wondered.

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Arab World

UN Official: Houthis Seized Office Assets, Blocked Flights

Nearly 70 United Nations staff remain detained by the Houthi group on alleged espionage charges (AFP)
Nearly 70 United Nations staff remain detained by the Houthi group on alleged espionage charges (AFP)
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UN Official: Houthis Seized Office Assets, Blocked Flights

Nearly 70 United Nations staff remain detained by the Houthi group on alleged espionage charges (AFP)
Nearly 70 United Nations staff remain detained by the Houthi group on alleged espionage charges (AFP)

The United Nations said on Friday that the Houthi group in Sanaa has taken unilateral steps that undermine its humanitarian operations in Yemen, seizing UN equipment and assets and blocking humanitarian flights at a time when aid needs are mounting for millions of people.

In an official statement issued on Friday, the United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Julien Harneis, said Houthi de facto authorities stormed at least six UN offices in Sanaa on Thursday, January 29, 2026. All the offices were unoccupied at the time.

The authorities removed most communications equipment and several UN vehicles and transferred them to an unknown location, without any prior coordination or notification.

The statement said the United Nations had not authorized the transfer of these assets and had received no official explanation for the move.

It stressed that all the seized equipment had been brought into Yemen through approved legal procedures with the necessary permits from the relevant authorities, and that it forms part of the minimum infrastructure required to maintain a UN presence and implement its humanitarian programs.

The measures were not limited to asset seizures. The statement said the de facto authorities have, for more than a month, prevented United Nations Humanitarian Air Service flights to Sanaa.

Flights to Marib province, under the internationally recognized government's control, have also been suspended for more than four months without any official explanation.

UNHAS flights are the only means allowing UN staff and international nongovernmental organization workers to enter and leave areas controlled by the Houthis.

The disruption has therefore imposed additional restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid and undermined international organizations' ability to respond to growing needs in those areas.

The humanitarian coordinator warned that these measures come at an extremely sensitive time, as Yemen is experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian deterioration, particularly in areas under Houthi control.

He said that continuing such practices would worsen living conditions and increase civilian suffering.

Collapsed operating environment

The escalation coincides with a deepening crisis related to the detention of United Nations staff by the Iran-aligned group. The number of arbitrarily detained employees had risen to at least 69 by last December, marking one of the most serious waves of targeting of humanitarian workers.

Those detained include Yemeni staff working for major UN agencies, including the World Food Programme, UNICEF, and the United Nations Development Programme, as well as staff of the UN clinic in Sanaa.

The arrests are often carried out through home raids, intimidation of families, and the transfer of employees to undisclosed locations, without allowing them to contact their families or lawyers.

The Houthi group has promoted accusations of “espionage” for foreign parties, allegations the United Nations has categorically rejected, saying the staff are being targeted solely for carrying out humanitarian work.

In this context, the UN resident coordinator in Yemen recalled Security Council resolutions 2801 (2025) and 2813 (2026), which call on the Houthis to provide a safe and secure operating environment and to immediately and unconditionally release all detained staff.

Against this backdrop, the United Nations announced in early 2025 the suspension of non-life-saving activities in Houthi-controlled areas.

The World Food Programme said in January 2026 that it had laid off several Yemeni staff due to the freezing of relief operations, underscoring the severity of these practices and their direct impact on Yemen’s humanitarian situation.

Arab World

Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill at Least 12

A Palestinian inspects the site of an Israeli strike on Saturday, in Gaza City, January 31, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian inspects the site of an Israeli strike on Saturday, in Gaza City, January 31, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
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Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill at Least 12

A Palestinian inspects the site of an Israeli strike on Saturday, in Gaza City, January 31, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian inspects the site of an Israeli strike on Saturday, in Gaza City, January 31, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hospitals in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians Saturday, one of the highest tolls since an October agreement aimed at stopping the fighting.

The strikes hit locations in northern and southern Gaza, including an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent in Khan Younis, officials at hospitals that received the bodies said. The casualties included two women and six children from two different families.

The Shifa Hospital said the Gaza City strike took killed a mother, three children and one of their relatives, while the Nasser Hospital said a strike in a tent camp caused a fire to break out, killing seven, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has recorded more than 500 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of the ceasefire on Oct. 10.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes.

Arab World

Yemen Welcomes EU Terror Designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards control the military activities of all Houthi units (EPA) 
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards control the military activities of all Houthi units (EPA) 
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Yemen Welcomes EU Terror Designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards control the military activities of all Houthi units (EPA) 
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards control the military activities of all Houthi units (EPA) 

The Yemeni government welcomed a European Union decision to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, saying the move marked a long-awaited shift toward confronting a central driver of instability and security threats across the region and beyond.

In an official statement, the government said the decision reflected growing European awareness of the destructive role the Guards had played over many years.

It said the group had fueled armed conflicts, systematically supported groups and militias operating outside national state institutions, repeatedly threatened international maritime routes, and persistently undermined the foundations of global stability and security.

The statement said classifying the Guards as a terrorist organization marked a qualitative shift in the international community’s approach to Iran’s behavior and brought to an end a long period of political leniency toward activities that have become a direct threat to collective security, both in the Middle East and beyond.

It added that Yemen’s Houthi group was nothing more than one of the Guards’ direct military arms, and that its project, based on violence, coups, and the imposition of faits accomplis by force, represented a straightforward extension of the destabilizing role led by the Iranian military body outside Iran’s borders.

The government said the Houthis’ record of targeting civilians, shelling civilian infrastructure, launching cross-border attacks, and threatening commercial shipping and maritime navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden clearly demonstrated the group’s organic and operational links to the Guards, in terms of ideology, funding, armament, and military planning.

It said the obstruction of regional and international peace efforts in Yemen, the disruption of political tracks, and the use of organized violence as a negotiating tool were practices consistent with the model adopted by the Guards in managing their proxies in the region and turning them into tools of pressure and blackmail against the international community.

The Yemeni government called on the European Union to complete this step by taking a similar and decisive decision to designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization, in line with European laws and legislation and relevant UN Security Council resolutions, to help dry up the militias’ sources of funding, deter their aggressive behavior, and enhance prospects for a just and lasting peace in Yemen and the region.

Practical measures

In the same context, Information, Culture and Tourism Minister Muammar al-Eryani said the EU’s decision to classify the Guards as a terrorist organization was “a step in the right direction and a clear message that the international community has begun to deal seriously with one of the most dangerous sources of instability in the region, after years of overlooking its cross-border military and security roles.”

He said in an official statement that the importance of the decision lay not only in its political symbolism but also in the practical executive measures that must follow, including drying up funding sources, freezing assets, pursuing networks and fronts linked to the Guards, and cutting off channels of support, smuggling, and armament they manage across multiple countries and regions.

Eryani said the Guards had played a direct and organized role in Yemen by managing the Houthi coup project, noting that their involvement went beyond supplying weapons, experts, technology, and funding to include operational supervision and the management of military and security networks in areas under Houthi control.

He said this was proven by field evidence and by the roles played by Guards operatives, including Hasan Irlu and Abdul Reza Shahlai, whom he described as operational field managers of Iran’s project.

He said what happened in Yemen was not an exceptional case but part of a fixed regional pattern based on building armed militias parallel to the state, fueling conflicts, spreading chaos and terrorism, and using proxies to impose realities by force and blackmail the international community.

Historic decision

The Yemeni position follows what it described as a historic decision taken by EU foreign ministers on Jan. 29, 2026, to add Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to the bloc’s terrorist list, in a shift described as ending a phase of diplomatic caution and ushering in a new era of economic and legal confrontation with what it called the backbone of Iran’s ruling system.

The decision came in direct response to the violent crackdown by Iranian authorities on widespread protests in late 2025 and early 2026, which rights groups estimate resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians, as well as the Guards’ expanding regional role, including supplying Russia with drones and threatening global energy security and international shipping.

The designation entails a package of strict legal and political consequences, including asset freezes, travel bans, and the criminalization of any form of cooperation or support, alongside tighter diplomatic isolation, limiting the Guards’ ability to operate under political or economic cover inside Europe.

The Yemeni government said the path to regional security and stability begins with ending the policy of impunity for actors that sponsor and manage cross-border armed militias, supporting national states and their legitimate institutions, and respecting countries’ unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.

It reiterated its full commitment to working closely with the international community, foremost the European Union, to achieve peace, combat terrorism, protect international navigation, and build a safe and stable future for the peoples of the region.