LONDON: The UN Security Council’s five permanent members called for the unconditional protection of civilians in Marib on Thursday.
During a call with Marib’s governor, the heads of missions of the UK, US, France, Russia and China to Yemen said that “a fully inclusive political solution in Yemen is the only way to end to the suffering of the Yemeni people.”
They added that all Yemeni parties should promote dialogue and that “there is no military solution to the crisis.”
The governor of Marib, Sultan Al-Arada, briefed the ambassadors on the dire humanitarian situation in the governorate.
The call took place a day after the UN Security Council condemned Houthi cross-border attacks against targets in Saudi Arabia, car-bomb attacks targeting a Yemeni official convoy, and attacks on civilian and commercial ships in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea.
Thousands of combatants and civilians have been killed in Marib province since early this year when the Houthis resumed a major military offensive to control Marib city.
The Arab coalition has recently been carrying out operations in Marib’s besieged Abedia district which has been under a Houthi siege since Sept. 23.
The militia has been hindering the movement of civilians and impeding humanitarian aid flows.
P5 countries call for protection of civilians amid Houthi offensive on Marib
https://arab.news/5nq7c
P5 countries call for protection of civilians amid Houthi offensive on Marib
- P5: All Yemeni parties should promote dialogue and that “there is no military solution to the crisis”
- The call took place a day after the UN Security Council condemned Houthi cross-border attacks against targets in Saudi Arabia
Israel MPs advance bill on Orthodox control of Western Wall
- Bill is the latest twist in the clash between Netanyahu’s coalition govt and the supreme court
JERUSALEM: Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday advanced a bill that would place the Western Wall under the exclusive authority of the Chief Rabbinate, effectively restricting non-Orthodox worship at the site’s mixed-gender prayer section.
Located in the Old City of Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in 1967, the Western Wall is the last remnant of the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
It is the holiest site at which Jews are permitted to pray by the rabbinate.
The plaza includes three prayer areas — the largest for men, another for women, and a smaller mixed area which is disapproved of by the official Israeli rabbinate, dominated by the ultra-Orthodox.
A bill introduced by far-right lawmaker Avi Maoz that would give the Chief Rabbinate full authority over all sections passed a preliminary parliamentary reading on Wednesday, with 56 lawmakers voting in favor and 47 against.
The legislation would define any activity contrary to the rabbinate’s directives — including non-Orthodox forms of worship — as a “desecration.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not present for the vote.
At the heart of the dispute lies the prayer area known as Ezrat Yisrael, established to accommodate mixed-gender worship.
Several non-Orthodox Jewish movements — predominant among Jewish communities in the US but a small minority in Israel — worship at the site but complain that it is hard to access and poorly laid out.
Seeking to make a gesture to the American Jewish community, a previous Netanyahu government had voted in 2016 for establishing the mixed-gender area, but backtracked the following year under pressure from its ultra-Orthodox allies.
As such, the mixed space was established but not developed.
The bill advanced on Wednesday is the latest twist in the clash between Netanyahu’s coalition government, one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history, and the Supreme Court, whose powers the government has sought to curtail since it took office in 2022.
Last week the court ordered the government and Jerusalem municipality to act on long-delayed plans to develop and improve the mixed-gender section, including issuing building permits that had been stalled for nearly a decade.
The court did not directly rule on theological matters but emphasized that prior government commitments could no longer remain indefinitely suspended.
In response, Justice Minister Yariv Levin urged lawmakers to support Maoz’s bill in order to block what he described as unacceptable interference by the top court in religious affairs.
