TEHRAN: Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi will go to Damascus on Wednesday at the official invitation of the Syrian president for a “very important” two-day visit, state media reported.
“Dr. Raisi’s trip to Damascus next Wednesday is a very important trip due to the changes and developments that are taking place in the region,” IRNA state news agency on Sunday quoted Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, as saying.
The visit comes against the backdrop of a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and increased Arab engagement with Damascus.
Iran is a major ally of President Bashar Assad and has given financial and military support to his regime during Syria’s 12-year-old conflict.
“This trip will not only be beneficial for Tehran and Damascus, but it is also a very good event that other countries in the region can also take advantage of,” Akbari was reported as saying.
Raisi’s visit will be the first by an Iranian president to Damascus since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011.
The last Iranian president to visit the Syrian capital was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in September 2010.
The Islamic republic finances, arms and commands a number of Syrian and foreign militia groups fighting alongside the Assad regime’s regular armed forces, chief among them Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group.
Iran’s Raisi to visit Syria on Wednesday
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Iran’s Raisi to visit Syria on Wednesday
- The visit comes against the backdrop of a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia
Gaza pier resumes operations after pause due to weather, US officials say
The UN has not yet resumed transportation of the aid from the pier to UN World Food Programme warehouses
WASHINGTON: A floating US military pier off Gaza has resumed bringing humanitarian aid into the enclave after being suspended for two days because of rough seas due to weather, three US officials said on Tuesday.
After the pier was out of operation for 10 days for repairs, the US military briefly resumed offloading aid on Saturday, but bad sea conditions halted aid movement on Sunday and Monday.
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the sea conditions had improved, allowing for aid to be brought to a marshalling area.
The Pentagon on Monday sought to dispel what it said were false social media reports that Israel used the pier in a hostage rescue mission on Saturday. The UN said it would review security before resuming aid deliveries from the dock.
The UN has not yet resumed transportation of the aid from the pier to UN World Food Programme warehouses. WFP chief Cindy McCain said on Sunday that those warehouses were struck on Saturday and one person injured.
Aid began arriving via the US-built pier on May 17, and the UN said it transported 137 trucks of aid to warehouses, some 900 metric tons, before the US announced on May 28 that it had suspended operations so repairs could be made.
US President Joe Biden announced in March the plan to put the pier in place for aid deliveries as famine loomed in Gaza, a Hamas-run enclave of 2.3 million people, during the war between Israel and the Palestinian militants.
UN rejects ‘outrageous allegations’ against staff held in Yemen
- The UN and aid groups said late last week that the Iran-backed milita had detained more than a dozen aid workers
GENEVA: The UN rights chief on Tuesday demanded that Yemen’s Houthi militia “immediately and unconditionally” release detained UN staff and other aid workers, flatly rejecting allegations that they were part of a spy network.
The Houthis on Monday said the people they arrested last week were part of a US-Israeli spy network, adding that those held worked under “the cover of international organizations and UN agencies.”
“I categorically reject the outrageous allegations against our staff, and am deeply worried about the conditions in which they are being held,” Volker Turk said in a statement.
The UN and aid groups said late last week that the Iran-backed milita had detained more than a dozen aid workers, many of them UN staff, in what appeared to be a coordinated move.
The Houthis, who are engaged in a long-running civil war that has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, did not specify how many people were arrested.
The militia seized control of the capital Sanaa in September 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention on behalf of the government the following March.
Providing a detailed breakdown on the UN side, Turk’s statement said 13 of the world body’s personnel had been detained, including six members of his own staff.
“I urge the de facto authorities in Sanaa, Yemen, to immediately and unconditionally release them, as well as other individuals detained in relation to their affiliation with the UN, international NGOs or other actors supporting humanitarian activities,” he said.
“It is crucial that the de facto authorities ensure that those detained are treated with full respect for their human rights and dignity, and that they are able to contact their families,” he said.
“Access to the detained colleagues by the United Nations must be granted as soon as possible.”
As for non-UN staff detained, the Yemeni Mayyun Organization for Human Rights said at least 18 Yemeni aid workers were kidnapped in four Houthi-held parts of the war-torn country.
The Houthis have kidnapped, arbitrarily detained and tortured hundreds of civilians, including United Nations and NGO workers, since the start of Yemen’s conflict in 2014, according to Human Rights Watch.
The latest “detentions come in addition to two other UN Human Rights staff, who were already detained, one of whom has been detained since August 2023, and the other since November 2021,” Turk said.
“Both of them have been held incommunicado, without any due process,” he lamented, adding that “UNESCO also had two personnel detained prior to the latest detentions.”
Turk pointed out that his office had been “working in Yemen since 2012, for the promotion and protection of the rights of all the people of Yemen, including through engagement with the de facto authorities.”
“Any further targeting of human rights and humanitarian workers in Yemen must cease immediately,” he said.
Guterres condemns ‘arbitrary’ Houthi crackdown on UN workers in Yemen
- Houthis detained around 50 Yemenis working for UN agencies and other foreign organizations
- Antonio Guterres: ‘This is an alarming development that raises serious concerns about the Houthis’ commitment to a negotiated solution to the conflict’
AL-MUKALLA: The UN secretary-general has called on the Iran-backed Houthis to free dozens of Yemenis who were seized by the militia during a recent crackdown.
Last week, the Houthis detained around 50 Yemenis working for UN agencies and other foreign organizations, as well as former US Embassy personnel in Sanaa and other provinces under their control.
In a statement on Tuesday, Antonio Guterres said: “This is an alarming development that raises serious concerns about the Houthis’ commitment to a negotiated solution to the conflict. The United Nations condemns all arbitrary detention of civilians. I demand the immediate and unconditional release of all detained UN personnel.”
On Monday, the Houthis claimed to have arrested an “American-Israeli spy network” of Yemeni nationals using international organizations as a cover for their operations.
In addition to four UN staff detained since 2021, Guterres said the Houthis held 13 workers from different agencies during their last campaign, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the office of the UN Yemen envoy, the Development Programme, UNICEF, the World Food Programme and UNESCO, as well as 11 workers from other civil society organizations.
He accused the Houthis of keeping the abducted workers incommunicado and preventing them from contacting their families or organizations.
To put pressure on them to release the workers, UN Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg met Houthi negotiator Mohammed Abdul Sallam and senior Omani officials in Muscat on Monday.
“We are working diligently to secure the immediate and unconditional release of our detained personnel through all available channels,” the envoy said, adding that the latest crackdown on civil society groups undermined UN-brokered attempts to reach peace in Yemen.
The Houthis have lately increased the number of arrests of private company owners, Yemeni workers with international organizations, dissidents, and Yemeni employees in Western embassies.
Yemen’s information minister said managers and staff from two big pharmaceutical businesses in Yemen were seized during the latest in a series of raids on private enterprises.
Moammar Al-Eryani alleged that the Houthis stormed the two enterprises because they refused to share earnings.
The management of Modern Pharma Company and Global Pharma Company in Sanaa were abducted, as well as managers and staff of the two enterprises’ branches in other Yemeni regions under Houthi control.
According to Yemeni news outlet Al-Masdar Online, a Houthi “judicial guard” named Saleh Dubaish, who oversees the seizing of assets from the militia’s opponents, stormed the two companies and seized employees.
At the same time, Yemeni and international rights groups and activists slammed the Houthis for accusing imprisoned Yemenis of working as spies for US and Israeli intelligence agencies.
On Monday, the Houthis released a videotape of 10 Yemenis from the alleged spy network in which they admitted to collaborating with US and Israeli agents and providing them with sensitive military information, as well as undermining the country’s health, agricultural and educational sectors and recruiting other Yemeni spies.
In a post on X, Fatehi bin Lazerq, editor of Aden Al-Ghad newspaper, described the Houthi claim as “shocking and very painful.” He said: “It confirms that this barbaric group is taking the people in areas under its control to prehistoric times.”
Experts argue that by accusing Yemenis of working as spies for Israel and the US, the Houthis aim to deprive those people of public support, incite hostility towards the West, and thus justify repressive rules in areas under their control.
Ibrahim Jalal, a nonresident scholar at Carnegie Middle East Centre, told Arab News the recent Houthi campaign would discourage Yemenis from joining international organizations or Western missions in Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen.
“The Houthi espionage accusations against Yemenis working for Western diplomatic missions and international humanitarian and development organizations mark yet another dangerous decline in personal freedoms, humanitarian access, and civilian safety and security, including (that of) women and children,” Jalal said.
He added that the Houthis would use the accused spies and other personnel as a negotiating chip to gain concessions from the international community.
“Externally, Houthi espionage fabrication, akin to Iran, uses citizens as ‘hostages’ to negotiate what they want, without regard for their lives and stability of their families,” Jalal said.
Iraqi forces kill senior Daesh leader in a raid in Syria
- Abu Zainab, an Iraqi national, was killed in the Syrian city of Raqqa
BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces have killed a senior member of the Daesh group in Syria who was responsible for carrying out attacks against Iraqi government forces, the Iraqi National Security Service said on Tuesday.
Abu Zainab, an Iraqi national, was killed in the Syrian city of Raqqa “during the past days” in cooperation with US-led coalition forces, it said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the US-led anti-Daesh coalition did not respond to a request for comment.
The US-led coalition is working with Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria against remnants of the Daesh group.
In Iraq, the group was defeated in 2017 but Daesh militants still wage regular attacks on police, the army and Iraqi state paramilitary units.
Egypt welcomes Security Council resolution calling for Gaza ceasefire
- Egypt also reaffirmed the necessity of finding a way to implement the two-state solution as the sole guarantee of ending the crisis.
CAIRO: Egypt has welcomed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The deal includes the swapping of hostages and detainees, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the safe return of displaced Palestinian citizens to their homes. It also includes access to sufficient humanitarian aid for the population of Gaza.
Egypt reiterated its demand for Israel to comply with its obligations under international law and halt the war it is waging. It called on both Israel and Hamas to take serious steps toward concluding the ceasefire deal as soon as possible.
Egypt also reaffirmed the necessity of finding a way to implement the two-state solution as the sole guarantee of ending the crisis. It called for the establishment of an independent and territorially contiguous Palestinian state on 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution aimed at reaching a comprehensive ceasefire deal in three phases to end the war in Gaza. The US-drafted text calls for Hamas to accept a proposal announced on May 31 by President Joe Biden.
