AL-MUKALLA: At least 1,000 Yemeni pilgrims are stranded in Saudi Arabia after the Houthis seized Yemenia Airways flights that would carry them from the Kingdom to Houthi-held Sanaa, the Yemeni government said on Saturday.
Last week, the Houthis seized three Yemenia aircraft at Sanaa airport and prevented them from returning to Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah airport to carry Yemeni pilgrims home, causing the Yemeni government to accuse the Houthis of “hijacking” the planes and worsening Yemenis’ misery.
The Houthi Ministry of Transportation admitted on Thursday that the planes were seized, and vowed to take control of Yemenia Airways, reschedule flights from Yemeni airports, including those controlled by the Yemeni government, and repair planes at Sanaa Airport, accusing the Yemeni government of plundering the company’s revenues.
The internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council on Friday formed a government committee chaired by the prime minister to deal with the Houthis’ takeover of Yemenia flights and the militia’s freeze of more than $100 million of the company’s assets in Sanaa banks.
“The council hold the terrorist militia entirely accountable for the consequences of this dangerous escalation, which would exacerbate civilians’ suffering and influence the national carrier’s flights,” the presidential council said, according to official news agency SABA.
In other developments, US and British jets struck Houthi targets in two Yemeni provinces as the militia escalated their drone, missile, and drone boat attacks on ships.
Houthi media reported that US and UK planes carried out four airstrikes on Hodeidah airport in the western province of Hodeida, as well as four more airstrikes on locations in Mawiyah district of the southern province Taiz over the last 24 hours.
The latest round of airstrikes occurred after the Houthis claimed to have targeted ships in the Red Sea and Mediterranean with ballistic missiles, drones, and explosive-laden drone boats.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised statement on Friday night that their forces, in collaboration with an allied militia in Iraq, launched a number of drones at an oil tanker named Waler, which was bound for Haifa in Israel and was targeted for violating their ban on ships heading to Israeli ports.
He further claimed that the Houthis launched ballistic missiles at an American ship named Delonix in the Red Sea, and at Johannes Maersk in the Mediterranean, accusing the latter’s parent company, Maersk, of being one of Israel’s “most supportive companies.”
The Houthis also targeted a ship named Ioannis in the Red Sea with drone boats for visiting Israeli ports in the past, he said.
According to www.marinetraffic.com, the Waler is a Panama-flagged oil and chemical tanker sailing from Georgia to Egypt’s East Mediterranean port of Said, the Delonix is a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker sailing from Ukraine to an unknown destination, and the Johannes Maersk is a container ship sailing under the Danish flag and was in the East Mediterranean on Saturday.
US Central Command said on Saturday that its forces had destroyed seven drones and one ground control station vehicle in Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen.
Over the past eight months, the Houthis have sunk two ships and seized one commercial ship in the Red Sea, and directed hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones, and drone boats at ships in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, and, most recently, the Mediterranean in a campaign that the Houthis claim is only targeting Israel-linked ships and those sailing to Israel in order to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza.
Hundreds of Yemen pilgrims stuck in KSA after Houthis seize Yemenia planes
https://arab.news/94jm2
Hundreds of Yemen pilgrims stuck in KSA after Houthis seize Yemenia planes
- US, UK planes pound militia targets in Taiz, Hodeidah amid escalating ship attacks
- The Houthi Ministry of Transportation admitted on Thursday that the planes were seized
Syria, Kurdish forces race to save integration deal ahead of deadline
- Discussions have accelerated in recent days despite growing frustrations over delays
AMMAN/RIYADH/BEIRUT/ANKARA: Syrian, Kurdish and US officials are scrambling ahead of a year-end deadline to show some progress in a stalled deal to merge Kurdish forces with the Syrian state, according to several people involved in or familiar with the talks.
Discussions have accelerated in recent days despite growing frustrations over delays, according to the Syrian, Kurdish and Western sources who spoke to Reuters, some of whom cautioned that a major breakthrough was unlikely.
The interim Syrian government has sent a proposal to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls the country’s northeast, according to five of the sources.
In it, Damascus expressed openness to the SDF reorganizing its roughly 50,000 fighters into three main divisions and smaller brigades as long as it cedes some chains of command and opens its territory to other Syrian army units, according to one Syrian, one Western and three Kurdish officials.
’SAVE FACE’ AND EXTEND TALKS ON INTEGRATION
It was unclear whether the idea would move forward, and several sources downplayed prospects of a comprehensive eleventh-hour deal, saying more talks are needed. Still, one SDF official said: “We are closer to a deal than ever before.”
A second Western official said that any announcement in coming days would be meant in part to “save face,” extend the deadline and maintain stability in a nation that remains fragile a year after the fall of former President Bashar Assad.
Whatever emerges was expected to fall short of the SDF’s full integration into the military and other state institutions by year-end, as was called for in a landmark March 10 agreement between the sides, most of the sources said.
Failure to mend Syria’s deepest remaining fracture risks an armed clash that could derail its emergence from 14 years of war, and potentially draw in neighboring Turkiye that has threatened an incursion against Kurdish fighters it views as terrorists.
Both sides have accused the other of stalling and acting in bad faith. The SDF is reluctant to give up autonomy it won as the main US ally during the war, after which it controlled Islamic State prisons and rich oil resources.
The US, which backs Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and has urged global support for his interim government, has relayed messages between the SDF and Damascus, facilitated talks and urged a deal, several sources said.
A US State Department spokesperson said Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy to Syria, continued to support and facilitate dialogue between the Syrian government and the SDF, saying the aim was to maintain momentum toward integration of the forces.
SDF DOWNPLAYS DEADLINE; TURKEY SAYS PATIENCE THIN
Since a major round of talks in the summer between the sides failed to produce results, frictions have mounted including frequent skirmishes along several front lines across the north.
The SDF took control of much of northeast Syria, where most of the nation’s oil and wheat production is, after defeating Daesh militants in 2019.
It said it was ending decades of repression against the Kurdish minority but resentment against its rule has grown among the predominantly Arab population, including against compulsory conscription of young men.
A Syrian official said the year-end deadline for integration is firm and only “irreversible steps” by the SDF could bring an extension.
Turkiye’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said on Thursday it does not want to resort to military means but warned that patience with the SDF is “running out.”
Kurdish officials have downplayed the deadline and said they are committed to talks toward a just integration.
“The most reliable guarantee for the agreement’s continued validity lies in its content, not timeframe,” said Sihanouk Dibo, a Syrian autonomous administration official, suggesting it could take until mid-2026 to address all points in the deal.
The SDF had in October floated the idea of reorganizing into three geographical divisions as well as the brigades. It is unclear whether that concession, in the proposal from Damascus in recent days, would be enough to convince it to give up territorial control.
Abdel Karim Omar, representative of the Kurdish-led northeastern administration in Damascus, said the proposal, which has not been made public, included “logistical and administrative details that could cause disagreement and lead to delays.”
A senior Syrian official told Reuters the response “has flexibility to facilitate reaching an agreement that implements the March accord.”
