SANAA: Yemen’s Houthi militia on Saturday broke its silence on the cause of a fire that tore through a detention center for migrants earlier this month, killing at least 45 people, mostly Ethiopian migrants.
The Houthis acknowledged that guards fired three tear gas canisters into a crowded hangar in the capital, Sanaa, trying to end a protest by the migrants.
A statement by the Houthi Interior Minister said at least 11 men from the security forces were detained over the incident, along with a number of senior officials who would be tried before court.
The migrant community in Sanaa has called for an international probe into the tragedy, a demand backed by international rights groups.
Some 900 migrants, most of them from Ethiopia, had been detained at the facility — including more than 350 inside the hangar. The site was run by the Passports and Naturalization Authority.
At least 45 people were killed in the March 7, the militia said, including one who died of his wounds on Friday. More than 200 others were wounded.
The migrants had been protesting and went on hunger strike against alleged abuses and ill-treatment at the detention facility, according to survivors and local rights campaigners.
The Houthis Saturday claimed that the migrants were protesting to pressure the International Organization for Migration to transfer them.
Houthis admit tear gas behind fire at migrant detention center
https://arab.news/r72bz
Houthis admit tear gas behind fire at migrant detention center
- The Houthis acknowledged that guards fired three tear gas canisters into a crowded hangar in Sanaa
- A Houthi Interior Minister statement said at least 11 men from the security forces were detained over the incident
Iran, UK foreign ministers in rare direct contact
- A UK government source said Cooper “emphasized the need for a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program and raised a number of other issues”
TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has spoken by phone with his British counterpart Yvette Cooper, an Iranian foreign ministry statement said on Saturday, in a rare case of direct contact between the two countries.
The ministry said that in Friday’s call the ministers “stressed the need to continue consultations at various levels to strengthen mutual understanding and pursue issues of mutual interest.”
A UK government source said Cooper “emphasized the need for a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program and raised a number of other issues.”
The source in London said Cooper raised the case of Lindsay and Craig Foreman, a British couple detained in Iran for nearly a year on suspicion of espionage.
The Iranian ministry statement did not mention the case of the two Britons.
It said Araghchi criticized “the irresponsible approach of the three European countries toward the Iranian nuclear issue,” referring to Britain, France and Germany.
The three countries at the end of September initiated the
reinstatement of UN sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program.
The Foremans, both in their early fifties, were seized in January as they passed through Kerman, in central Iran, while on a round-the-world motorbike trip.
Iran accuses the couple of entering the country pretending to be tourists so as to gather information for foreign intelligence services, an allegation the couple’s family rejects.
Before Friday’s call, the last exchange between the two ministers was in October.
