LONDON: The Iran-backed Houthi militia must stop blocking much-needed aid and UN access to the Safer tanker, Yemen’s president said on Thursday.
The abandoned tanker has been stranded off Yemen’s Red Sea oil terminal of Ras Issa for more than five years and risks causing massive environmental damage.
Speaking at the 75th UN General Assembly, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi said that the Houthis have taken state institutions hostage, “smothered liberty, blown up schools and places of faith, persecuted citizens and transformed Sanaa into a prison.”
He added: “We are trying to save our country and establish a just and lasting peace. The objective is to stop the blood-letting in Yemen.”
Efforts made by the Arab coalition and the UN to establish peace have fallen “face down” because of the Houthis and “their sponsors the Iranian regime,” the president said.
He condemned the Houthis for targeting civilians and residential infrastructure in both Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
The president urged the international community to exert active and determined pressure on the Houthis so that they respect UN Security Council resolutions.
Hadi also thanked all donor countries and organizations for their aid and support.
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President urges end to ‘blood-letting in Yemen’
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President urges end to ‘blood-letting in Yemen’
- Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi said that the Houthis have taken state institutions hostage
- “We are trying to save our country and establish a just and lasting peace. The objective is to stop the blood-letting in Yemen,” he said
Israel expands Lebanon strikes, killing 11
- Israel expanded its air strikes in Lebanon on Wednesday, targeting the area around the presidential palace near Beirut and other areas south of the capital
BEIRUT: Israel expanded its air strikes in Lebanon on Wednesday, targeting the area around the presidential palace near Beirut and other areas south of the capital as well as strongholds of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, killing at least 11 people.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes over the weekend.
An air strike hit a hotel in Hazmieh on Wednesday, the first reported Israeli attack on the predominantly Christian area in Beirut’s suburbs near the presidential palace and several embassies.
Some rooms were gutted in the strike, while wounded people received treatment in the lobby, AFP images showed.
People also fled through debris carrying suitcases past the Comfort Hotel’s sign, which had fallen broken to the ground. It was not possible to determine who was targeted in the attack.
The southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, were targeted again on Wednesday morning, following an evacuation order from Israel’s military.
Smoke rose over the densely populated area, where some residents fled when the violence erupted.
In Aramoun and Saadiyat south of Beirut — two towns outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds — the health ministry said Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded eight others. It cautioned that this was a “preliminary toll.”
AFP footage from Aramoun showed damaged cars and rescue workers carrying a wounded person on a stretcher.
Strikes also targeted a four-story building in the city of Baalbek, in Lebanon’s east far from the border where Hezbollah also has a strong presence.
Five people were killed, 15 were wounded and three remain missing, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
One side of the building collapsed. AFP correspondents saw rescue workers searching through the rubble for survivors.
- Ground incursion -
The Israeli military called on people to “immediately” leave 13 towns and villages in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning ahead of strikes against Hezbollah, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
A similar evacuation warning had earlier been issued for 16 other southern towns and villages.
Hezbollah carried out a series of strikes against Israel on Tuesday, claiming to have targeted sites including the northern Haifa naval base in retaliation for Israeli strikes in southern Beirut.
Since Monday, Israeli strikes have killed at least 50 people and wounded 335 in Lebanon, the health ministry said before the overnight strikes.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said three paramedics were killed and six injured “while recovering people injured by explosions” in Lebanon’s southern Tyre district.
“Warring parties must abide by international humanitarian law and protect health workers, facilities and patients,” he said on X.
Lebanese authorities on Monday recorded the displacement of more than 58,000 people from areas targeted by strikes.
The Israeli military has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until the Lebanese group disarms.
Israeli forces also launched a ground incursion on Tuesday, advancing into a border area in southern Lebanon, a Lebanese army source told AFP.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes over the weekend.
An air strike hit a hotel in Hazmieh on Wednesday, the first reported Israeli attack on the predominantly Christian area in Beirut’s suburbs near the presidential palace and several embassies.
Some rooms were gutted in the strike, while wounded people received treatment in the lobby, AFP images showed.
People also fled through debris carrying suitcases past the Comfort Hotel’s sign, which had fallen broken to the ground. It was not possible to determine who was targeted in the attack.
The southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, were targeted again on Wednesday morning, following an evacuation order from Israel’s military.
Smoke rose over the densely populated area, where some residents fled when the violence erupted.
In Aramoun and Saadiyat south of Beirut — two towns outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds — the health ministry said Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded eight others. It cautioned that this was a “preliminary toll.”
AFP footage from Aramoun showed damaged cars and rescue workers carrying a wounded person on a stretcher.
Strikes also targeted a four-story building in the city of Baalbek, in Lebanon’s east far from the border where Hezbollah also has a strong presence.
Five people were killed, 15 were wounded and three remain missing, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
One side of the building collapsed. AFP correspondents saw rescue workers searching through the rubble for survivors.
- Ground incursion -
The Israeli military called on people to “immediately” leave 13 towns and villages in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning ahead of strikes against Hezbollah, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
A similar evacuation warning had earlier been issued for 16 other southern towns and villages.
Hezbollah carried out a series of strikes against Israel on Tuesday, claiming to have targeted sites including the northern Haifa naval base in retaliation for Israeli strikes in southern Beirut.
Since Monday, Israeli strikes have killed at least 50 people and wounded 335 in Lebanon, the health ministry said before the overnight strikes.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said three paramedics were killed and six injured “while recovering people injured by explosions” in Lebanon’s southern Tyre district.
“Warring parties must abide by international humanitarian law and protect health workers, facilities and patients,” he said on X.
Lebanese authorities on Monday recorded the displacement of more than 58,000 people from areas targeted by strikes.
The Israeli military has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until the Lebanese group disarms.
Israeli forces also launched a ground incursion on Tuesday, advancing into a border area in southern Lebanon, a Lebanese army source told AFP.
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