AL-MUKALLA: The internationally recognized government of Yemen has commended Yemeni tribes that are fighting alongside army troops in the conflict with Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
In a virtual meeting led by Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, the Yemeni Cabinet hailed the role of tribesmen supporting the army amid fighting in Marib, Jawf, Al-Bayda and other contested areas.
According to Yemen’s state news agency, Defense Minister Mohammed Al-Maqdishi told the Cabinet that military support from tribes enabled the army to gain important territory.
“Cabinet ministers hailed the great role of the tribes in supporting the national army and defending the republican system and national principles,” the Cabinet said.
Since the escalation began after a Houthi drone and missile attack killed more than 110 soldiers in Marib, thousands of tribesmen have joined the fight against Houthi offensives that aim to seize control of new areas in northern Yemen, including Marib.
Army officers and military experts said the army would not have been able to liberate areas in central provinces and defend Marib without support from local tribes.
“The tribes have played a great role in supporting the national army. The tribes reinforced the army with fighters, logistics and intelligence, and hosted army troops,” Col. Abdul Basit Al-Baher, a Yemeni army spokesperson in the southern city of Taiz, told Arab News. He added that tribes have historically tilted the balance of any conflict in Yemen in favor of the party they support.
“The Yemeni tribes have revolted against the Houthis since the Houthis want to revive the imamate that allegedly gives them a divine right to rule Yemen,” Al-Baher said, referring to the system of government which existed in northern Yemen before the 1962 revolution.
Amateur videos posted on social media in recent days showed dozens of heavily armed tribesmen in Marib grouping in mountainous areas, before heading to the front line to support government troops.
Fearing tribal rebellions, Houthis have destroyed the homes of tribal leaders who support the Yemeni government and have also warned against rebellion in areas under their control.
Last year, Houthis crushed a rebellion by Houjor tribes in Kousher, in the northern province of Hajja.
Last month, in the central province of Al-Bayda, Houthis stormed Radman district, where tribal leader Yasser Al-Awadhi staged an uprising after Houthis refused to punish local fighters who had killed a woman.
Col. Al-Baher advised the army to extend support to tribes that revolt against the Houthis.
“Many tribes will rise against the Houthis, but fear their reprisal. The government and the coalition should not let them down,” he said.
In Hodeidah, three government soldiers were killed and nine injured on Monday after Houthis attacked an outpost in a remote area in the district of Attuhyta, local media reported.
Meanwhile, the Aden-based national coronavirus committee, a government body recording infections in government areas, said on Monday that the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases totaled 1,284, including 345 deaths, after recording 19 new cases and seven deaths in several Yemeni provinces.
Yemeni tribes who fight Houthis ‘should not be let down,’ says army
https://arab.news/c7p3q
Yemeni tribes who fight Houthis ‘should not be let down,’ says army
- Cabinet ministers hailed the great role of the tribes in supporting the national army: Cabinet
Trump says Iran government change ‘best thing that could happen’
- US president's comments come after he ordered a second aircraft carrier to head to the Middle East
FORT BRAGG, United States: US President Donald Trump said a change of government in Iran would be the “best thing that could happen,” as he ordered a second aircraft carrier to head to the Middle East.
“Seems like that would be the best thing that could happen,” Trump told reporters at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina when a journalist asked if he wanted “regime change” in Iran.
“For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking. In the meantime, we’ve lost a lot of lives while they talk,” he told reporters.
Trump declined to say who he would want to take over in Iran from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but he added that “there are people.”
He has previously backed off full-throated calls for a change of government in Iran, warning that it could cause chaos, although he has made threats toward Khamenei in the past.
Speaking earlier at the White House, Trump said that the USS Gerald R. Ford — the world’s largest warship — would be “leaving very soon” for the Middle East to up the pressure on Iran.
“In case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it,” Trump said.
The giant vessel is currently in the Caribbean following the US overthrow of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. Another carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is one of 12 US ships already in the Middle East.
When Iran began its crackdown on protests last month — which rights groups say killed thousands — Trump initially said that the United States was “locked and loaded” to help demonstrators.
But he has recently focused his military threats on Tehran’s nuclear program, which US forces struck last July during Israel’s unprecedented 12-day war with Iran.
The protests have subsided for now but US-based Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah, urged international intervention to support the Iranian people.
“We are asking for a humanitarian intervention to prevent more innocent lives being killed in the process,” he told the Munich Security Conference.
It followed a call by the opposition leader, who has not returned to his country since before the revolution, for Iranians at home and abroad to continue demonstrations this weekend.
Iran and the United States, who have had no diplomatic relations since shortly after the revolution, held talks on the nuclear issue last week in Oman. No dates have been set for new talks yet.
The West fears the program is aimed at making a bomb, which Tehran denies.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said Friday that reaching an accord with Iran on inspections of its processing facilities was possible but “terribly difficult.”
Trump said after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week that he wanted to continue talks with Iran, defying pressure from his key ally for a tougher stance.
The Israeli prime minister himself expressed skepticism at the quality of any agreement if it didn’t also cover Iran’s ballistic missiles and support for regional proxies.
According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, 7,008 people, mostly protesters, were killed in the recent crackdown, although rights groups warn the toll is likely far higher.
More than 53,000 people have also been arrested, it added.
The Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) NGO said “hundreds” of people were facing charges linked to the protests that could see them sentenced to death.
Figures working within the Iranian system have also been arrested, with three politicians detained this week from the so-called reformist wing of Iranian politics supportive of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The three — Azar Mansouri, Javad Emam and Ebrahim Asgharzadeh — were released on bail Thursday and Friday, their lawyer Hojjat Kermani told the ISNA news agency.
