MANILA: The United States is “keeping all our options open” when it comes to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the national security adviser said Monday, amid reports the outgoing Trump administration could tag the group as terrorists.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to the Philippines, Robert O’Brien criticized the Iran-backed Houthis of failing to engage in a “good-faith peace process” to end the conflict.
The Houthis are at the center of a flurry of diplomacy as the Trump administration, which has made isolating its arch-foe Tehran a centerpiece of its regional policy, enters its final weeks.
Washington was monitoring the situation “very closely,” said O’Brien in response to a question on whether the US would designate the Houthis a “terrorist organization.”
“We are constantly considering whether and who and how we should designate terrorist organizations,” O’Brien said.
“President Trump is still the president of the United States for the next 50 days and this will be something that is certainly on the agenda and we will have to see how that plays out,” he added.
“Right now we encourage the Houthis to expel the Iranians, to stop attacking neighbors and stop attacking people within Yemen and engage in a good-faith peace process with the other stakeholders in Yemen.”
The rebel group controls the capital Sanaa and much of the north after a grinding five-year war with government forces that has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The government is supported by a Saudi-led coalition, assisted by Western powers including the US.
The Houthis have reacted angrily to the prospect of the US designation, saying Trump had no right to make the ruling after failing to win a second term.
The possibility has also alarmed humanitarian groups who say it could cripple aid delivery and tip the country into famine.
US keeps ‘all options’ open for Yemen’s Houthis
https://arab.news/gyjua
US keeps ‘all options’ open for Yemen’s Houthis
- Adviser Robert O’Brien criticized the Iran-backed Houthis of failing to engage in a “good-faith peace process” to end the conflict
- “Right now we encourage the Houthis to expel the Iranians, to stop attacking neighbors and stop attacking people within Yemen"
Syria opens aid corridor to Kurdish-majority town
- The Syrian Democratic Forces find themselves restricted to Kurdish-majority areas in the northeast and Kobani in the north
DAMASCUS: Syria’s military said on Sunday it had opened a humanitarian corridor to the Kurdish-majority town of Kobani, filled with displaced people, as a UN convoy carrying lifesaving aid headed there.
The aid came as the Defense Ministry announced a 15-day extension of the ceasefire across all fronts of Syrian Arab Army operations, effective at 11 p.m. on Jan. 24.
The ministry said the ceasefire extension comes in support of the US operation to transfer Daesh detainees from prisons in Syria to Iraq.
The Operations Command of the Syrian Arab Army warned the Syrian Democratic Forces and PKK militias against continuing their violations and provocations.
It also announced the opening of two humanitarian corridors, one to Kobani and another in nearby Hasakah province, to allow “the entry of aid.”
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, representative of the UN’s refugee agency in Syria, said on X that “thanks to the cooperation with the Syrian government ... a convoy of 24 trucks carrying essential food, relief items, and diesel” departed for Kobani “to deliver life-saving and winter assistance to civilians affected by the hostilities.”
The Syrian Democratic Forces find themselves restricted to Kurdish-majority areas in the northeast and Kobani in the north.
Kobani, which Kurdish forces liberated from a lengthy siege by Daesh in 2015, became a symbol of their first major victory against the terrorists.
The Syrian Petroleum Company said it had begun transporting crude oil from the Jbessa oil field in eastern Hasakah province to the Baniyas refinery on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
The move follows the arrival of the first shipment of crude oil from Deir Ezzor fields to storage facilities in Baniyas, where it will be processed.
