CAIRO: The Arab Parliament announced on Wednesday that it has designated the Iranian-backed Houthi militia as a terrorist group for its role in deliberately targeting civilians and civilian installations, calling on the League of Arab States and the UN to take similar action.
The resolution was issued during an Arab Parliament meeting in Cairo in the wake of the “terrorist attack on civilian installations in Saudi Arabia and commercial vessels in the territorial waters of the United Arab Emirates and the Sea of Oman,” reported the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
The Arab Parliament called on the UN and the Security Council to adopt a firm and immediate position to classify the Houthi militia as a terrorist organization; for its flagrant violation of international law and its deliberate targeting of civilian and vital installations in Saudi Arabia with ballistic missiles and aircraft.
It also called on the world body to also pursue its leaders, financiers and supporters, whether they are states or groups.
Meshaal bin Fahm Al-Sulami, spokesperson of the Arab Parliament, said the Parliament will not condone any group targeting civilian areas, such as the Houthi attacks on neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia.
“These attacks are a war crime,” he said.
He also mentioned that the Houthis are threatening Yemeni MPs for attending parliament sessions. The parliament condemned in the strongest terms the Houthi attack targeting two oil pumping stations in Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom’s Abha International Airport in the southwest.
It also condemned the sabotage of four commercial vessels of a number of countries near the UAE’s territorial waters and two vessels for transporting oil in the Sea of Oman, affirming its full solidarity with Saudi Arabia and the UAE in maintaining their security and stability and the measures they take to protect their security and the safety of their citizens.
The Arab Parliament denounced Iran’s negative interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries, directly or indirectly, as well as threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, which is an international strait for international navigation and can not be attacked or harmed, or to mobilize its terrorist organizations within Arab countries to destabilize security and stability.
The parliament also denounced the continued launching of Iranian-made ballistic missiles by the Houthi militia on Saudi Arabia, which has seen more than 225 rockets launched toward the Kingfom and have even targeted toward the holy city of Makkah.
The Arab Parliament gave its full support for the resolutions issued by the Arab emergency summit held in Makkah in May, calling on the Arab League to raise the issue of Iranian threats and its interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries to the UN Security Council to halt these interventions.
The Parliament called on the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly and the Inter-Parliamentary Union to shoulder their responsibilities toward Iran’s violation of Yemen’s sovereign rights and the smuggling of weapons and ballistic missiles to the Houthi militia with the aim of destabilizing the region and maintaining chaos. It also urged the UN to compel Iran to comply with Security Council Resolution 2216, which prohibits the supply of arms to the Houthis.
The Arab Parliament also condemned the continuing Iranian interference in Bahrain’s internal affairs, including the formation and support of militias, supporting extremist groups and terrorist organizations, training terrorists, supplying weapons and fueling sectarianism to destabilize security and stability in the kingdom.
It also condemned Iran’s continued occupation of three occupied islands of the United Arab Emirates: Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, and stressed its full support for the UAE in all its actions to restore its three islands.
The Arab Parliament appreciated the leading and pivotal role played by Saudi Arabia and the great efforts of King Salman to host the two Arab and Gulf emergency summits in Makkah on May 29.
Arab Parliament classifies Houthis as a terrorist group, calls on UN and Arab League to do the same
Arab Parliament classifies Houthis as a terrorist group, calls on UN and Arab League to do the same
- The Parliament voted on the draft resolution before submitting it to the UN and Arab League
- The spokesperson called the Houthi attacks a war crime
Foreign women linked to Daesh group in Syrian camp hope for amnesty after government offensive
- Many of the women are either wives or widows of Daesh fighters who were defeated in Syria
- “There were changes in the behavior of children and women. They became more hostile,” the camp’s director said
ROJ CAMP, Syria: Foreign women linked to the Daesh group and living in a Syrian camp housing more than 2,000 people near the border with Iraq are hoping that an amnesty may be on the horizon after a government offensive weakened the Kurdish-led force that guards the camp.
The women spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday in northeast Syria’s Roj camp, where hundreds of mostly women and children linked to Daesh have been held for nearly a decade.
The camp remains under control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which until recently controlled much of northeastern Syria. A government offensive this month captured most of the territory the group previously held, including the much larger Al-Hol camp, which is holding nearly 24,000 mostly women and children linked to Daesh.
Many of the women are either wives or widows of Daesh fighters who were defeated in Syria in March 2019, marking the end of what was once a self-declared caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria.
The most well-known resident of the Roj camp, Shamima Begum, was 15 when she and two other girls fled from London in 2015 to marry Daesh fighters in Syria. Begum married a Dutch man fighting for Daesh and had three children, who all died.
Last month, Begum lost her appeal against the British government’s decision to revoke her UK citizenship. Begum refused to speak to AP journalists at the camp.
The director of the Roj camp, Hakmiyeh Ibrahim, said that the government’s offensive on northeast Syria has emboldened the camp residents, who now tell guards that soon they will be free and Kurdish guards will be jailed in the camp instead.
“There were changes in the behavior of children and women. They became more hostile,” the camp’s director said. “It gave them hope that the Daesh group is coming back strongly.”
Since former Syrian President Bashar Assad was toppled in a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024, the country’s new army is made up of a patchwork of former insurgent groups, many of them with Islamist ideologies.
The group led by now-interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa was once linked to Al-Qaeda although Al-Sharaa’s group and Daesh were rivals and fought for years. Since becoming president, Al-Sharaa — formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed Al-Golani — has joined the global coalition against Daesh.
Camp residents hope for amnesty
One woman from Tunisia who identified herself only as Buthaina, pointed out that Al-Sharaa was removed from the UN and US lists of terrorists.
“People used to say that Al-Golani was the biggest terrorist. What happened to him later? He became the president of Syria. He is not a terrorist any more,” she said. “The international community gave Al-Golani amnesty. I should be given amnesty too.”
She added, “I did not kill anyone or do anything.”
The camp director said more than 2,300 people are housed in the Roj camp. They include a small number of Syrians and Iraqis, but the vast majority of them — 742 families — come from nearly 50 other countries, the bulk of them from states in the former Soviet Union.
That is in contrast to Al-Hol camp, where most residents are Syrians and Iraqis who can be more easily repatriated. Other countries have largely been unwilling to take back their citizens. Human rights groups have for years cited poor living conditions and pervasive violence in the camps.
The US military has begun moving male Daesh detainees from Syrian prisons to detention centers in Iraq, but there is no clear plan for the repatriation of women and children at the Roj Camp.
“What is happening now is exactly what we have been warning about for years. It is the foreseeable result of international inaction,” said Beatrice Eriksson, the cofounder of the children rights organization Repatriate the Children in Sweden. “The continued existence of these camps is not an unfortunate by-product of conflict, it is a political decision.”
Some women don’t want to go home
Some of the women interviewed by the AP said they want to go back home, while others want to stay in Syria.
“I did not come for tourism. Syria is a Muslim country. Germany is all infidels,” said a German woman who identified herself only as Aysha, saying that she plans to stay.
Another woman, a Belgian who identified herself as Cassandra, said she wants to get out of the camp but would like to stay in the Kurdish-controlled area of Syria.
She said that her French husband was an Daesh fighter killed in the northern city of Raqqa, once considered the de facto capital by Daesh. She said Belgium has only repatriated women who had children, unlike her. She was 18 when she came to Syria, she said.
Cassandra added that when fighting broke out between government forces and Kurdish fighters, she started receiving threats from other camp residents because she had good relations with the Kurdish guards.
Future of the camps in limbo
The government push into northeast Syria led to chaos in some of the more than a dozen detention centers where nearly 9,000 members of Daesh have been held for years.
Syrian government forces are now in control of Al-Aqtan prison near Raqqa as well as the Shaddadeh prison near the border with Iraq, where more than 120 detainees managed to flee amid the chaos before most of them were captured again.
Part of an initial ceasefire agreement between Damascus and the SDF included the Kurdish-led group handing over management of the camps and detention centers to the Syrian government.
Buthaina, the Tunisian citizen, said her husband and her son are held in a prison. She said her husband worked in cleaning and did not fight, while her son fought with the extremists.
She has been in Roj for nine years and saw her other children grow up without proper education or a childhood like other children.
“All we want is freedom. Find a solution for us,” Buthaina said.
She said the Tunisian government never checked on them, but now she hopes that “if Al-Golani takes us there will be a solution.”
She said those accused of crimes should stand trial and others should be set free.
“I am not a terrorist. The mistake I made is that I left my country and came here,” she said. “We were punished for nine years that were more like 90 years.”
