‘Let’s help Yemen regain ability to chart its own future,’ US envoy Tim Lenderking tells Arab News

01: Tim Lenderking on maintaining focus on the peace process
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Updated 25 April 2024
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‘Let’s help Yemen regain ability to chart its own future,’ US envoy Tim Lenderking tells Arab News

  • Lenderking says it would be a ‘terrible tragedy’ to squander progress in Yemen peace process amid ‘competing crises’
  • US envoy calls on Iran to stop fueling the conflict in Yemen and halt smuggling weapons to the Houthi militia

NEW YORK CITY: Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in response to Israel’s military offensive against Hamas in Gaza must not derail the peace process in Yemen, Tim Lenderking, the US special envoy for Yemen, has said.

Since the war in Gaza began in October last year, attacks by the Houthis on commercial and military vessels in the strategic waterways have caused significant disruption to global trade.

The Iran-backed armed political and religious group, formally known as Ansar Allah, views itself as a part of the Iranian-led “Axis of Resistance” against Israel, the US and the wider West.

It has threatened to continue its attacks on vessels until Israel ends its assault on Gaza. Since January, the UK and the US, in coalition with five other countries, have responded with retaliatory strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

The US will halt these retaliatory strikes when the Houthi militia stops its attacks on shipping, Lenderking told Arab News in an interview, placing responsibility for de-escalating the situation in the militia’s hands.




Yemenis hold a pro-Palestine march in the Houthi-run capital Sanaa. (AFP)

“The onus (is) on the Houthis to stop the Red Sea attacks,” he said. “That can prompt us all to begin to dial back, to de-escalate, to return the situation in Yemen to where it was on Oct. 6, which had considerably more promise and possibility than what exists now, and that’s where we want to return the focus.”

Lenderking called on Iran to “stop fueling the conflict (and) stop smuggling weapons and lethal material to Yemen, against UN Security Council resolutions.”

Yemen had never been so close to peace before the process was derailed by the latest regional turmoil, said Lenderking. The Yemeni civil war has gone on too long, he said: “It must stop.”

“The Yemeni people (have) suffered from this war for eight years now. They want their country back. They want their country (to be) peaceful. They don’t want foreign fighters in Yemen. They don’t want the Iranians in Sanaa. They don’t want the IRGC, the (Islamic) Revolutionary Guard (Corps) wandering around in Sanaa.

“Let’s help Yemen regain its country and its ability to chart its own future. That’s what the US so, so dearly wants.”

He added: “We’re trying very hard to marshal and maintain an international effort to keep the focus on Yemen’s peace process, on the very critical humanitarian situation.

“But look at what’s crowding us out: Terrible tragedy unfolding in Gaza. Russia’s war in Ukraine. Afghanistan. Sudan. There are many competing crises that are dominating the attention of the US and the international community.”




The cargo ship Rubymar partly submerged off the coast of Yemen after being hit by a Houthi missile. (AFP)

While the war in Yemen is linked to other conflicts raging in the region, the UN has recently said the world owes it to the Yemenis to ensure that resolving the war in Yemen is not made contingent upon the resolution of other issues, and that Yemen’s chance for peace does not become “collateral damage.”

“We cannot escape what’s happening in Gaza,” said Lenderking. “Not one single day goes by when the people I talk to about Yemen don’t also talk about Gaza. So we know this is a searing and very, very important situation that must be dealt with.

“This situation is holding up our ability to return the focus to the peace process in Yemen, to take advantage of a road map that was agreed to by the Yemeni government and by the Houthis in December, and get the Houthis to refocus their priorities not on Red Sea attacks — which are hurting Yemenis by the way, hurting Yemen — but to the peace effort in Yemen itself.”

Speaking during a UN Security Council briefing last week, Hans Grundberg, the UN envoy for Yemen, said the threat of further Houthi attacks on shipping persists in the absence of a ceasefire in Gaza — the urgent need for which was underscored by the recent escalation in hostilities between Israel and Iran.

Lenderking said: “We continue to hear from the Houthis that these (two) issues are linked and that (the Houthis) will not stop the attacks on Red Sea shipping until there’s a ceasefire in Gaza.




Lenderking called on Iran to “stop fueling the conflict (and) stop smuggling weapons and lethal material to Yemen, against UN Security Council resolutions.” (AFP)

“We believe there’s essential progress that could be done now. There are 25 members of the Galaxy Leader crew, the ship that was taken by the Houthis on Nov. 19 last year, still being held.

“They’re from five different countries. There is no reason why these individuals, who are innocent seafarers, are being detained in Hodeidah by the Houthis. Let them go. Release the ship. There are steps that could be taken. We could continue working on prisoner releases.

“These kinds of things will demonstrate to the Yemeni people that there’s still hope and that the international community is still focused on their situation.”

Lenderking said it would be a “terrible tragedy” to squander the progress toward peace that had been made in the previous two years.

A truce negotiated in April 2022 between the parties in Yemen had initially led to a reduction in violence and a slight easing in the dire humanitarian situation in the country. Two years on, the UN has lamented there is now little to celebrate.




Yemeni children gather to collect humanitarian aid on the outskirts of Marib. (AFP)

“Detainees we had hoped would be released in time to spend Eid with their loved ones remain in detention,” said UN envoy Grundberg. “Roads we had hoped to see open remain closed.

“We also witnessed the tragic killing and injury of 16 civilians, including women and children, when a residence was demolished by Ansar Allah (Houthi) individuals in Al-Bayda governorate.”

The humanitarian situation in Yemen has also become markedly worse in recent months amid rising food insecurity and the spread of cholera.

Edem Wosornu, director of operations and advocacy at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the Security Council in the same briefing that the situation had deteriorated further after the World Food Programme suspended the distribution of food aid in areas controlled by the Houthis in December 2023.

This pause followed disagreements with local authorities over who should receive priority assistance and was compounded by the effects of a severe funding crisis on WFP humanitarian efforts in Yemen.

“The most vulnerable people — including women and girls, marginalized groups such as the Muhamasheen, internally displaced people, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, and persons with disabilities — still depend on humanitarian assistance to survive,” said Wosornu.

Wosornu also voiced concern about an increase in cases of cholera in Yemen amid the deterioration of public services and institutions.

“The re-emergence of cholera, and growing levels of severe malnutrition, are telling indicators of the weakened capacity of social services,” she said.

“Almost one in every two children under five are stunted, more than double the global average: 49 percent compared to 21.3 percent.

“Emergency stocks of essential supplies are almost depleted. And water, sanitation and hygiene support systems need urgent strengthening.”

The humanitarian response plan for Yemen is only 10 percent funded, with funding for its food security and nutrition programs standing at just 5 percent and 3 percent respectively, according to an informal update presented to the Security Council by the OCHA this week.




Supporters of Yemen’s Huthi militia attend a gathering to mark annual Quds (Jerusalem) Day commemorations in Sanaa. (AFP)

Wosornu appealed to the international community to take urgent action to help fill the funding gaps.

Commenting on the funding shortage, Lenderking said: “When there’s a genuine possibility of a Yemen peace process, donors will take note of that and respond. But the fact that we’re in this limbo, where the peace process is on hold while the Houthi is continuing these attacks (in the Red Sea), that I think is to be blamed on the Houthis because they’re derailing what was a legitimate peace process.

“But once we can get back to that, I think we could call on the international community to say, look, there is a ray of hope. There is a process. There is a commitment. The US is supporting an international effort. We can get the donors to come back to Yemen, despite all of the competition for these very scarce resources.”


Israel strikes tents near hospitals in Gaza, killing and wounding reporters

Updated 2 min 45 sec ago
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Israel strikes tents near hospitals in Gaza, killing and wounding reporters

  • An attack on a media tent outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis at around 2 a.m. set the tent ablaze
  • Israel also struck tents on the edge of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir Al-Balah

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israel struck tents outside two major hospitals in the Gaza Strip overnight, killing at least two people, including a local reporter, and wounding nine, including six reporters, medics said Monday.
Fifteen others were killed in separate strikes across the territory, according to hospitals.
A strike on a media tent outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis at around 2 a.m. set the tent ablaze, killing Yousef Al-Faqawi, a reporter for the Palestine Today TV station, and another man, according to the hospital. The six reporters were wounded in that strike.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas militant, without providing further information. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because it is deeply embedded in residential areas.
Israel also struck tents on the edge of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir Al-Balah, wounding three people, according to the hospital.
Nasser Hospital said it received 13 other bodies, including six women and four children, from separate strikes overnight. Al-Aqsa Hospital said two people were killed and three wounded in a strike on a home in Deir Al-Balah.
Israel has carried out waves of strikes across Gaza and ground forces have carved out new military zones since it ended its ceasefire with Hamas last month. Israel has barred the import of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid since the beginning of March.
Thousands of people have sheltered in tents set up inside hospital compounds throughout the 18-month war, assuming Israel would be less likely to target them.
Israel has raided hospitals on several occasions, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes, allegations denied by hospital staff.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, rampaging through army bases and farming communities and killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They abducted 251 people, and are still holding 59 captives — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.
Israel has vowed to keep escalating military pressure until Hamas releases the remaining hostages, lays down its arms and leaves the territory. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will then implement US President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle much of Gaza’s population to other countries through what the Israeli leader refers to as “voluntary emigration.”
Palestinians say they do not want to leave their homeland, and human rights experts have warned that implementing the Trump proposal would likely amount to mass expulsion in violation of international law.
Netanyahu will meet with Trump in Washington on Monday to discuss Gaza and other issues.
Israel’s military offensive has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were militants or civilians. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and at its height displaced around 90 percent of its population.


UAE foreign minister presses Palestinian cause during meeting with Israeli counterpart

Updated 4 sec ago
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UAE foreign minister presses Palestinian cause during meeting with Israeli counterpart

  • Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan emphasized the need to end the ‘worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip’
  • Meeting comes as Israel continues to escalate its rampage in Gaza

DUBAI/RIYADH: The foreign minister of the UAE on Sunday pressed the need for a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict during a meeting in Abu Dhabi with his Israeli counterpart, the UAE foreign ministry said in a statement.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who is also the UAE’s deputy prime minister, and Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar discussed “the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip” and efforts to reach a ceasefire, according to the statement posted on the ministry website.

It said the meeting was attended by Saeed Mubarak Al-Hajeri, UAE assistant minister for economic and trade affairs, and Mohamed Mahmoud Al-Khaja, UAE ambassador to Israel.

Saar wrote on the X platform that it was his second meeting with Sheikh Abdullah.

The UAE and Israel established relations in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords. But there has been little bilateral contact since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, after the Hamas attacks on Israel.

“Sheikh Abdullah stressed the priority of working towards a ceasefire and the release of hostages, as well as the importance of avoiding further escalation of the conflict in the region,” the statement said.

Sheikh Abdullah also “reiterated the urgent need to advance a serious political horizon for the resumption of negotiations to achieve a comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution,” it added.

“He reaffirmed the UAE’s longstanding fraternal and historic stance in support of the Palestinian people, underlining the country’s unwavering commitment to supporting the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination,” it also said.

The UAE foreign minister further “emphasized the importance of ending extremism, rising tensions and violence in the region.”

The meeting came as Israel continues to pummel Gaza, destroying homes and killing more civilians when it resumed its military offensive last month after disregarding a truce that the United States helped broker.

In the latest casualty count by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, more than 1,330 people have been killed since Israel’s military resumed the offensive.

The overall death toll since the war erupted is now 50,695, according to the ministry.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Fifty-nine hostages are still being held in Gaza — 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

Among the latest victims in Israel’s perceived deliberate targeting of civilians were 15 medics from the Red Crescent, whose bodies were recovered only a week after the incident in which they were killed.


Israel controls 50% of Gaza as Palestinians get squeezed into shrinking wedges of land

Updated 52 min 51 sec ago
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Israel controls 50% of Gaza as Palestinians get squeezed into shrinking wedges of land

  • The largest contiguous area the army controls is around the Gaza border, where the military has razed Palestinian homes, farmland and infrastructure to the point of uninhabitability

TEL AVIV: Israel has dramatically expanded its footprint in the Gaza Strip since relaunching its war against Hamas last month. It now controls more than 50 percent of the territory and is squeezing Palestinians into shrinking wedges of land.
The largest contiguous area the army controls is around the Gaza border, where the military has razed Palestinian homes, farmland and infrastructure to the point of uninhabitability, according to Israeli soldiers and rights groups. This military buffer zone has doubled in size in recent weeks.
Israel has depicted its tightening grip as a temporary necessity to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war. But the land Israel holds, which includes a corridor that divides the territory’s north from south, could be used for wielding long-term control, human rights groups and Gaza experts say.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that even after Hamas is defeated, Israel will keep security control in Gaza and push Palestinians to leave.
The demolition close to the Israeli border and the systematic expansion of the buffer zone has been going on since the war began 18 months ago, five Israeli soldiers told The Associated Press.
“They destroyed everything they could, they shot everything that looks functioning ... (the Palestinians) will have nothing to come back, they will not come back, never,” a soldier deployed with a tank squad guarding the demolition teams said. He and four other soldiers spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
A report documenting the accounts of soldiers who were in the buffer zone was released Monday by Breaking The Silence, an anti-occupation veterans group. A handful of soldiers — including some who also spoke to AP — described watching the army turn the zone into a vast wasteland.
“Through widespread, deliberate destruction, the military laid the groundwork for future Israeli control of the area,” said the group.
Asked about the soldiers’ accounts, the Israeli army said it is acting to protect its country and especially to improve security in southern communities devastated by the Oct. 7 attack, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. The army said it does not seek to harm civilians in Gaza, and that it abides by international law.
Carving Gaza into sections
In the early days of the war, Israeli troops forced Palestinians from communities near the border and destroyed the land to create a buffer zone more than a kilometer (0.62 miles) deep, according to Breaking The Silence.
Its troops also seized a swath of land across Gaza known as the Netzarim Corridor that isolated the north, including Gaza City, from the rest of the narrow, coastal strip, home to more than 2 million people.
When Israel resumed the war last month, it doubled the size of the buffer zone, pushing it as far as 3 kilometers into Gaza in some places, according to a map issued by the military.
The buffer zone and the Netzarim Corridor make up at least 50 percent of the strip, said Yaakov Garb, a professor of environmental studies at Ben Gurion University, who has been examining Israeli-Palestinian land use patterns for decades.
Last week, Netanyahu said Israel intends to create another corridor that slices across southern Gaza, cutting off the city of Rafah from the rest of the territory. Israel’s control of Gaza is even greater taking into account areas where it recently ordered civilians to evacuate ahead of planned attacks.
Neighborhoods turned into rubble
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians used to live in the land that now makes up Israel’s buffer zone, an area that was key to Gaza’s agricultural output.
Satellite images show once dense neighborhoods turned to rubble, as well as nearly a dozen new Israeli army outposts since the ceasefire ended.
Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives throughout the war have left vast swaths of Gaza’s cities and towns destroyed. But the razing of property inside the buffer zone has been more methodical and extensive, soldiers said.
The five soldiers who spoke to the AP said Israeli troops were ordered to destroy farmland, irrigation pipes, crops and trees as well as thousands of buildings, including residential and public structures, so that militants had nowhere to hide.
Several soldiers said their units demolished more buildings than they could count, including large industrial complexes. A soda factory was leveled, leaving shards of glass and solar panels strewn on the ground.
Soldier alleges buffer zone was a ‘kill’ zone
The soldiers said the buffer zone had no marked boundaries, but that Palestinians who entered were shot at.
The soldier with the tank squad said an armored bulldozer flattened land creating a “kill zone” and that anyone who came within 500 meters of the tanks would be shot, including women and children.
Visibly shaken, he said many of the soldiers acted out of vengeance for the Oct. 7 attack.
“I came there because they kill us and now we’re going to kill them. And I found out that we’re not only killing them. We’re killing them, we’re killing their wives, their children, their cats, their dogs, and we destroyed their houses,” he said.
The army said its attacks are based on intelligence and that it avoids “as much as possible, harm to non-combatants.”
Long-term hold?
It is unclear how long Israel intends to hold the buffer zone and other territory inside Gaza.
In announcing the new corridor across southern Gaza, Netanyahu said Israel aims to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, of whom 35 are believed dead. He also said the war can only end when Hamas is destroyed and its leaders leave Gaza, at which point Israel would take control of security in the territory.
Then, Netanyahu said, Israel would implement US President Donald Trump’s call to move Palestinians from Gaza, what Israel calls “voluntary emigration.”
Some Israel analysts say the purpose of the buffer zone isn’t to occupy Gaza, but to secure it until Hamas is dismantled. “This is something that any sane country will do with regard to its borders when the state borders a hostile entity,” said Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at two Israeli think tanks, the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute.
But rights group say forcibly displacing people is a potential war crime and crime against humanity. Within Gaza’s buffer zones, specifically, it amounts to “ethnic cleansing,” because it was clear people would never be allowed to return, said Nadia Hardman, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Israel called the accusations baseless and said it evacuates civilians from combat areas to protect them.


France’s Macron meets Egypt leader for Gaza talks

Updated 07 April 2025
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France’s Macron meets Egypt leader for Gaza talks

  • Macron and El-Sisi held a dinner in a Cairo souk just after the French president arrived for the 48-hour visit
  • The two presidents will hold a more formal meeting on Monday morning before the summit with King Abdullah

CAIRO: France’s President Emmanuel Macron started talks dominated by the Gaza war on Sunday with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi after arriving in Cairo.
On Monday, Macron, El-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II will hold a summit as Israel renews its offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
On Tuesday, the French leader will head to the Egyptian port of El-Arish, near Gaza, to highlight the territory’s humanitarian plight.
Macron and El-Sisi held a dinner in a Cairo souk just after the French president arrived for the 48-hour visit.
Macron also took time for a private visit to the new Grand Egyptian Museum, to be officially inaugurated on July 3, that will show off 100,000 historic artefacts.
The two presidents will hold a more formal meeting on Monday morning before the summit with King Abdullah.
“The situation in Gaza will be widely discussed,” the French presidency said of the meetings stressing the importance of Egypt and Jordan in ending the war.

A picture shows a view of the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza near Cairo late on April 6, 2025, after France's President Emmanuel Macron arrived for a two-day visit in Egypt for meetings on Gaza. (AFP)


Egypt, along with Qatar and the United States, has been a mediator between Israel and Hamas. The United States has meanwhile called on Jordan and Egypt to accept Palestinian refugees from Gaza.
Israel has pushed to seize Gazan territory since the March 18 collapse of a short-lived truce with Hamas, in what it has called a strategy to force the militants to free hostages still held in Gaza.
Simultaneously, Israel has escalated attacks on Lebanon and Syria.
The port of El-Arish, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the Gaza Strip, has been a key transit point for international aid arriving for Gaza.
Macron is to meet humanitarian and security workers there to demonstrate his “constant mobilization in favor of a ceasefire,” his office said.
Most international aid went through the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt but this has been suspended by Israel since early March.
 


Palestinian official says Israeli forces killed West Bank teen with US citizenship

Updated 07 April 2025
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Palestinian official says Israeli forces killed West Bank teen with US citizenship

  • Settler violence in the West Bank, including incursions into occupied territory and raids on Bedouin villages and encampments, has intensified since the Gaza war began in October 2023

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: A Palestinian official told AFP that Israeli forces shot dead a teenager holding US citizenship in the occupied West Bank Sunday, while the Israeli military said it had killed a “terrorist” who threw rocks at cars.
Omar Muhammad Saadeh Rabee, a 14-year-old “who was killed in Turmus Ayya, held US citizenship,” the town’s mayor, Lafi Shalabi, told AFP.
The Israeli military said that during “counter-terrorism activity” in Turmus Ayya, “soldiers identified three terrorists who hurled rocks toward the highway, thus endangering civilians driving.”
“The soldiers opened fire toward the terrorists who were endangering civilians, eliminating one terrorist and hitting two additional terrorists,” a military statement added.
The Palestinian health ministry said one person was in critical condition and another suffered minor injuries in the same incident.
Shalabi said one of the wounded also had US citizenship. And Turmus Ayya, northest of the main West Bank city of Ramallah, is known for having many dual US-Palestinian citizens.
The Palestine Red Crescent said its teams had taken the body of the deceased boy to a hospital. It also reported the injuries of two boys shot in the lower abdomen and thigh respectively, during “clashes” in Turmus Ayya.
One of the two, 14-year-old Abdul Rahman Shehadeh, told AFP he was shot by a soldier while collecting fruit near the town.
The second, who was shot in the abdomen, was identified as 14-year-old Ayoub Asaad by his father Ahed Asaad. He confirmed that the boy had a US passport.
Ahed Assad said that an ambulance that took his wounded son to hospital was stopped by soldiers.
“We were stopped at a military checkpoint at the village entrance, and a soldier told me that he was the one who shot the three boys,” he told AFP.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign affairs ministry denounced the Israeli forces’ “use of live fire against three children.”
“Israel’s continued impunity as an illegal occupying power encourages it to commit further crimes,” it added.
Violence has soared in the West Bank since the Gaza war started on October 7, 2023.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 918 Palestinians, including militants, in the West Bank since then, according to Palestinian health ministry figures.
Palestinian attacks and clashes during military raids have killed at least 33 Israelis, including soldiers, over the same period, according to official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, home to about three million Palestinians, since 1967.