CHICAGO: Leaders of both the US Senate and House Foreign Relations committees on Friday condemned the Iranian-backed Houthis who recently breached the US Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, and are holding staff hostage.
Washington closed the embassy in 2015 amid escalating violence in the country and American diplomats left the country. However some local staff continue to work there, and these are the employees reportedly held by the Houthis. Some but not all of those detained have been released, according to reports this week.
New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez and Senator Jim Risch from Idaho, respectively the chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Representatives Gregory Meeks from New York and Michael McCaul from Texas, respectively the chair and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on Friday issued a joint statement about the situation.
They said: “We are deeply concerned by reports that the Houthis have breached our embassy compound in Sana’a and detained and harassed a number of US locally employed staff, and former staff employed by the United Nations.
“Such acts violate international law and basic principles of human rights, and must not be tolerated.
“This is just the latest in a series of violent acts by the Houthis. Over the past year, the Houthis have carried out hundreds of cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia, threatening civilians, including American citizens, and deployed numerous ballistic missiles inside Yemen.”
They added that the ongoing Houthi offensive against the “strategically important governorate of Marib” has “upended countless Yemeni lives, triggered fresh waves of displacement, and exacerbated the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”
The politicians continued: “The Houthis have long expressed a desire to assume a greater role in the governance of Yemen, but with governance comes responsibility and a need to uphold the basic principles of human rights and international law. Breaching the sovereign territory of a foreign embassy and threatening and detaining its staff clearly demonstrate the Houthis have no interest in peace, nor in making the changes necessary to become legitimate members of the international community.”
They said the actions of the Houthis will “have consequences” if the detainees are not immediately released.
The latest developments come days after Tim Lenderking, the US special envoy for Yemen, and Cathy Westley, the charge d’affaires for the US embassy to Yemen, currently based in Riyadh, visited the Yemeni city of Aden.
During their trip on Nov. 8 they met Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalek Saeed, Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak and Aden Governor Ahmed Lamlas, along with other senior government officials and representatives of Yemeni civil society.
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US politicians condemn Houthi breach of US Embassy in Yemen
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US politicians condemn Houthi breach of US Embassy in Yemen
- Top-ranking members of the Foreign Relations Committees in the Senate and House of Representatives demanded the immediate release of detained staff
- ‘Breaching the sovereign territory of a foreign embassy and threatening and detaining its staff clearly demonstrate the Houthis have no interest in peace,’ they said
January settler attacks cause record West Bank displacement since Oct 2023: UN
RAMALLAH: Israeli settler violence and harassment in the occupied West Bank displaced nearly 700 Palestinians in January, the United Nations said Thursday, the highest rate since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023.
At least 694 Palestinians were forcefully driven from their homes last month, according to figures from the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA, which compiles data from various United Nations agencies.
The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said in late January that settler violence has become a key driver of forced displacement in the West Bank.
January’s displacement numbers were particularly high in part due to the displacement of an entire herding community in the Jordan Valley, Ras Ein Al-Auja, whose 130 families left after months of harassment.
“What is happening today is the complete collapse of the community as a result of the settlers’ continuous and repeated attacks, day and night, for the past two years,” Farhan Jahaleen, a Bedouin resident, told AFP at the time.
Settlers in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, use herding to establish a presence on agricultural lands used by Palestinian communities and gradually deny them access to these areas, according to a 2025 report by Israeli NGO Peace Now.
To force Palestinians out, settlers resort to harassment, intimidation and violence, “with the backing of the Israeli government and military,” the settlement watchdog said.
“No one is putting the pressure on Israel or on the Israeli authorities to stop this and so the settlers feel it, they feel the complete impunity that they’re just free to continue to do this,” said Allegra Pacheco, director of the West Bank Protection Consortium, a group of NGOS working to support Palestinian communities against displacement.
She pointed to a lack of attention on the West Bank as another driving factor.
“All eyes are focused on Gaza when it comes to Palestine, while we have an ongoing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and nobody’s paying attention,” she told AFP.
West Bank Palestinians are also displaced when Israel’s military destroys structures and dwellings it says are built without permits.
In January, 182 more Palestinians were displaced due to home demolitions, according to OCHA.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to more than 500,000 Israelis living in settlements and outposts considered illegal under international law.
Around three million Palestinians live in the West Bank.
At least 694 Palestinians were forcefully driven from their homes last month, according to figures from the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA, which compiles data from various United Nations agencies.
The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said in late January that settler violence has become a key driver of forced displacement in the West Bank.
January’s displacement numbers were particularly high in part due to the displacement of an entire herding community in the Jordan Valley, Ras Ein Al-Auja, whose 130 families left after months of harassment.
“What is happening today is the complete collapse of the community as a result of the settlers’ continuous and repeated attacks, day and night, for the past two years,” Farhan Jahaleen, a Bedouin resident, told AFP at the time.
Settlers in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, use herding to establish a presence on agricultural lands used by Palestinian communities and gradually deny them access to these areas, according to a 2025 report by Israeli NGO Peace Now.
To force Palestinians out, settlers resort to harassment, intimidation and violence, “with the backing of the Israeli government and military,” the settlement watchdog said.
“No one is putting the pressure on Israel or on the Israeli authorities to stop this and so the settlers feel it, they feel the complete impunity that they’re just free to continue to do this,” said Allegra Pacheco, director of the West Bank Protection Consortium, a group of NGOS working to support Palestinian communities against displacement.
She pointed to a lack of attention on the West Bank as another driving factor.
“All eyes are focused on Gaza when it comes to Palestine, while we have an ongoing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and nobody’s paying attention,” she told AFP.
West Bank Palestinians are also displaced when Israel’s military destroys structures and dwellings it says are built without permits.
In January, 182 more Palestinians were displaced due to home demolitions, according to OCHA.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to more than 500,000 Israelis living in settlements and outposts considered illegal under international law.
Around three million Palestinians live in the West Bank.
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