عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Al-Alimi Names New Yemeni Govt

Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi chairs a council meeting on Friday. (Saba)
Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi chairs a council meeting on Friday. (Saba)
TT
TT

Al-Alimi Names New Yemeni Govt

Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi chairs a council meeting on Friday. (Saba)
Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi chairs a council meeting on Friday. (Saba)

Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi announced on Friday the formation of a new government.

The lineup was presented by Prime Minister Shaie Mohsen Al-Zindani and approved by al-Alimi.

Al-Zinadani retained his position of PM, as did Muammar Al-Iryani as Minister of Information.

The government is formed of Nayef Saleh Abdulqader Al-Bakri as Minister of Youth and Sports; Salem Abdullah Issa Al-Saqtari as Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Fisheries; Major General Ibrahim Ali Ahmed Haidan as Minister of Interior; Tawfiq Abdulwahid Ali Al-Sharjabi as Minister of Water and Environment; Mohammed Mohammed Hizam Al-Ashwal as Minister of Industry and Trade; and Dr. Qasim Mohammed Qasim Baheebah as Minister of Public Health and Population.

Judge Badr Abdo Ahmed Al-Aradha was named Minister of Justice; Major General (Staff) Taher Ali Aydha Al-Auqeeli as Minister of Defense; Engineer Badr Mohammed Mubarak Basalmah as Minister of Local Administration; Muti’a Ahmed Qasim Dammaj as Minister of Culture and Tourism; and Dr. Anwar Mohammed Ali Kalshat Al-Mahri as Minister of Technical Education and Vocational Training.

Engineer Adnan Mohammed Omar Al-Kaf was named Minister of Electricity and Energy; Marwan Faraj Saeed bin Ghanem as Minister of Finance; Dr. Afrah Abdulaziz Al-Zouba as Minister of Planning and International Cooperation; Salem Abu Bakr Mohammed Thabet Al-Awlaki as Minister of Civil Service and Insurance; Judge Ishraq Fadl Al-Maqtari as Minister of Legal Affairs; Dr. Adel Abdulmajid Alawi Al-Abbadi as Minister of Education; and Dr. Ameen Noman Mohammed Al-Qadsi as Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

Dr. Shadi Saleh Basarah was appointed Minister of Communications and Information Technology; Dr. Mohammed Abdullah Ali Bamqa’a as Minister of Oil and Minerals; Mohsen Ali Haidarah Qasim Al-Omari as Minister of Transport; Engineer Hussein Awad Saeed Al-Aqrabi as Minister of Public Works and Roads; Mukhtar Omar Saleh Al-Yafei as Minister of Social Affairs and Labor; Mashdal Mohammed Omar Ahmed as Minister of Human Rights; Sheikh Turki Abdullah Ali Al-Wadei as Minister of Endowments and Guidance; Dr. Abdullah Ali Hussein Abu Hurriya as Minister of State for Parliamentary and Shura Council Affairs; Abdulghani Hefzullah Jameel as Minister of State and Secretary of the Capital Sanaa; Dr. Ahd Mohammed Salem Ja’sous as Minister of State for Women’s Affairs; and Abdulrahman Sheikh Al-Yafei as Minister of State and Governor of Aden Governorate.

Ahmed Saleh Ahmed Al-Awlaki, Judge Akram Naseeb Ahmed Al-Ameri, Walid Mohammed Mohammed Al-Qudaimi and Walid Ali Ismail Al-Abarah were named Ministers of State.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Salam to Asharq Al-Awsat: We Refuse to Tie Lebanon’s Fate to Iran’s Interests

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam speaks to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, December 3, 2025. (Reuters)
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam speaks to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, December 3, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Salam to Asharq Al-Awsat: We Refuse to Tie Lebanon’s Fate to Iran’s Interests

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam speaks to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, December 3, 2025. (Reuters)
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam speaks to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, December 3, 2025. (Reuters)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stressed on Saturday that the state was doing everything possible on the political and diplomatic levels to end Israel’s war on Lebanon and ease its catastrophic impact on the people, especially the displaced.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that diplomatic efforts have not reached their desired results because the situation in Lebanon is being tied to the crises and war in the region.

“We could have avoided being impacted by the conflict were it not for the strategic error committed by Hezbollah by being dragged us into it,” he added.

This been a catastrophe for Lebanon and “the environment that the party claims it wants to protect,” Salam went on to say.

The war has been imposed on all the Lebanese people, he reiterated. “It is not in their interest,” he declared, underscoring the need to end the war.

Moreover, the PM revealed that foreign efforts to end the war are being met with “an extreme hardline position by Israel” and the United States’ preoccupation with the ongoing war.

He said the war was having dangerous repercussions on the security of the Arab Gulf, condemning and questioning Iran’s attacks against countries that have extended their hands in friendship towards it and repeatedly expressed their opposition to war before it erupted.

Salam underlined his government’s determination to implement its latest decisions related to banning Hezbollah’s military and security operations.

The state’s armed forces and judiciary are carrying out their duties to that end, but the war is making implementation more difficult, he said.

On Lebanon’s decision to impose visas on visiting Iranians, the PM explained it was due to intelligence about Iranian Revolutionary Guards operations that could harm Lebanon’s national security.

Lebanon wants the best relations with Iran, state to state, Salam added, while categorically rejecting tying the Lebanese people’s interests to that of another country as has already happened.

On the displacement of the people of the South and Beirut’s southern suburbs, the PM said the government was sparing no effort to ease their suffering and meet their essential needs, such as food and medicine.

This is a major challenge given the state’s limited means, he acknowledged. He added that he was personally overseeing aid efforts.

Meanwhile, France has continued to exert efforts to resolve the crisis. President Emmanuel Macron held telephone talks with President Joseph Aoun for the third time in two days.

His efforts have yet to make any breakthrough, ministerial sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The situation needs more time, they revealed, expecting that mid-next week should witness renewed efforts.

Aoun also received a telephone call from Spain’s King Felipe, who expressed Madrid’s solidarity with Beirut.

Earlier on Saturday, Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz warned the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah or "pay ‌a very ‌heavy price." 

"We (ISRAEL) ‌have ⁠no territorial claims ⁠against Lebanon, but we will not accept a situation ⁠where what ‌existed ‌for many ‌years — firing ‌from Lebanese territory toward the State of ‌Israel — is renewed," Katz said in ⁠a ⁠statement.  

"Therefore, we are turning and warning: act and take action before we act even more." 

The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon urged Lebanon and Israel to enter talks to negotiate an end hostilities after the outbreak of a renewed Israel-Hezbollah war.  

"As bad as things are today, they are set to get even worse," Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said.  

"Talks between Lebanon and Israel can be the game changer needed to save future generations from going, time and again, through the same nightmare".  

In December, Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives engaged in their first direct talks in decades as part of a meeting of a committee monitoring the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.  

Lebanon was engulfed by the expanding Middle East war on Monday, after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel to avenge the death of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks on Iran. 

Arab World

Israeli Army Warns Remaining Residents of Beirut’s Southern Suburbs to Evacuate

A destroyed building following an Israeli air strike in the Chiyah neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 March 2026. (EPA)
A destroyed building following an Israeli air strike in the Chiyah neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 March 2026. (EPA)
TT
TT

Israeli Army Warns Remaining Residents of Beirut’s Southern Suburbs to Evacuate

A destroyed building following an Israeli air strike in the Chiyah neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 March 2026. (EPA)
A destroyed building following an Israeli air strike in the Chiyah neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 March 2026. (EPA)

The Israeli military on Saturday warned the remaining residents of Beirut's southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds sway, to evacuate immediately.

"Urgent warning to residents of Beirut's southern suburbs, especially those who have not yet evacuated the area. We reiterate -- save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately," Arabic-language spokesman for the military Avichay Adraee said on X.

Tens of thousands of residents have fled the suburbs, known as Dahieh in Arabic, since Israel first issued an evacuation warning on Thursday ahead of its strikes.

Lebanon's social affairs minister said on Saturday that 454,000 people had been registered as displaced since the outbreak of the new war between Israel and Hezbollah.

In a press briefing, Haneen Sayed said that the total number of people who registered their names on a website affiliated with the ministry reached 454,000, including 112,525 people registered in government shelters.

Sayed urged remaining displaced people to register their names with the authorities, with Israel this week having warned residents of Beirut's densely populated southern suburbs and hundreds of square kilometers of southern Lebanon to evacuate.

Arab World

Strike Hits Iraqi PMF Base Near Mosul

A photograph shows the remains of a drone that was reportedly aimed at Erbil International Airport and crashed outside Erbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on March 3, 2026. (AFP)
A photograph shows the remains of a drone that was reportedly aimed at Erbil International Airport and crashed outside Erbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on March 3, 2026. (AFP)
TT
TT

Strike Hits Iraqi PMF Base Near Mosul

A photograph shows the remains of a drone that was reportedly aimed at Erbil International Airport and crashed outside Erbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on March 3, 2026. (AFP)
A photograph shows the remains of a drone that was reportedly aimed at Erbil International Airport and crashed outside Erbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on March 3, 2026. (AFP)

A strike targeted a military base belonging to the former paramilitary coalition Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in northern Iraq on Saturday, two PMF sources told AFP.

"An airstrike, likely American, hit a PMF base south of the city of Mosul," an official said. Another source confirmed the strike took place.

The PMF is an alliance of factions now integrated into the regular army.

Bases belonging to the PMF have been hit several times since the start of the war in the Middle East, with strikes hitting Tehran-backed armed groups.

Pro-Iran factions have brigades that operate within the PMF, but have a reputation for acting on their own.

They are also part of the loose alliance of the “Islamic Resistance” in Iraq that has vowed not to stay neutral in the war and has been claiming attacks against US bases in Iraq and the region.

Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, had said it did not want to be dragged into the conflict engulfing the Middle East, but it has not been spared.

It was drawn into the war from the outset, with strikes blamed on the United States and Israel targeting Iran-backed groups.