Ha! I think I remember this tactic on the playground. Punch someone in the nose and then say that you want peace before they have a chance to hit back. Clever, if utterly insincere.
The UN has welcomed a proposal from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels to end all attacks on Saudi Arabia as part of a peace initiative.
A statement said the proposal could send “a powerful message of the will to end the war”.
The offer comes a week after drone and missile strikes hit Saudi Arabian oil facilities.
Houthi rebels have claimed to have carried out the attack, but the US and Saudi Arabia have blamed Iran.
[…]
In a televised announcement, Houthi Supreme Political Council chair Mahdi al-Mashat said the group would end all strikes on Saudi Arabia, provided the kingdom and its allies did the same.
“We reserve the right to return and respond in the case there is no reaction to our initiative,” he said, and called on all parties in Yemen to work towards “comprehensive national reconciliation”.
Saudi Arabia has accused Yemeni rebels of attempting to throw into disarray the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca after a missile fired by the Iran-backed Houthis was intercepted south of Islam’s holiest city.
The Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after Houthis stormed the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, called the attack “a desperate attempt by Shiite Houthi rebels to disrupt Hajj.” The annual Muslim pilgrimage to the Kabaa, the most revered site in Islam, begins at the end of August.
The ballistic missile was intercepted 43 miles south of Mecca. It is not the first time the rebels have fired in the direction of the city. The AFP reported in October that the Houthis launched a long-range strike firing on Mecca.
Riyadh (AFP) – Two missiles fired from rebel-held territory in Yemen fell short of a US warship patrolling the Red Sea off the coast of the war-torn country, the US navy said Monday.
The USS Mason “detected two inbound missiles” within an hour of each other from around 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Sunday, said US Naval Forces Central Command spokeswoman Paula Dunn.
The destroyer had been “conducting routine operations in international waters” at the time, she said in a statement.
“Both missiles impacted the water before reaching the ship,” said Dunn, adding that “there were no injuries to our sailors and no damage to the ship”.
“We assess these missiles were launched from Huthi-controlled territory in Yemen,” she said, referring to the Iran-backed rebels fighting Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Military officials and residents say al-Qaida has taken control of a major airport in southern Yemen after briefly clashing with troops.
The officials say al-Qaida fighters clashed Thursday with members of the infantry brigade in charge of protecting the Riyan airport in the city of Mukalla, a major port city and the provincial capital of Yemen’s largest province, Hadramawt.
Al-Qaida overran the city itself earlier this month and freed inmates, including a militant commander, from its prison.
Nasser Baqazouz, an activist in the city, said the troops guarding the airport put up little resistance.
ADEN (Reuters) – Houthi fighters, backed by supporters of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh entered the provincial capital of the mainly Sunni Shabwa province in eastern Yemen on Thursday, residents said, despite intense Saudi-led air strikes against the group.
And Iran is insisting on an immediate influx of cash if they sign onto the deal with the West. Gee… I wonder what they will use that cash for.
ANKARA (Reuters) – Iran will only sign a final nuclear accord with six world powers if all sanctions imposed over its disputed atomic work are lifted on the same day, President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech on Thursday.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest says the success of U.S. foreign policy in Yemen should not be assessed in relation to the success or the stability of the country’s government, noting that the Middle Eastern nation — the region’s poorest — has long been in a “chaotic situation.”
“The measure of U.S. policy should not be graded against the success or the stability of the Yemeni government. That’s a separate enterprise,” Earnest said in a roundtable discussion on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday, adding that “the goal of U.S. policy toward Yemen has never been to try to build a Jeffersonian democracy there. The goal of U.S. policy toward Yemen is to make sure Yemen cannot be a safe haven that extremists can use to attack the West and to attack the United States.”
Pressed on the administration’s earlier assessment that Yemen was a “model” for successful counterterrorism strategies, Earnest said the U.S. still has the capacity to strike when necessary against extremists within the country.
First, Obama is spinning like crazy. OF COURSE we should judge our policies by their consequences. One of the consequences of our policy in Yemen is that the America-friendly regime is falling and will be replaced by America-hating, Iran-backed, Islamic terrorists.
Second, Earnest’s own standard for judging success is stated as, “the goal of U.S. policy toward Yemen is to make sure Yemen cannot be a safe haven that extremists can use to attack the West and to attack the United States.” Large chunks of Yemen are already controlled by terrorists who want to attack the West and the U.S. The rest of it will soon follow and all American forces were forced out. By Earnest’s own standard, our policy has failed.
This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.
Sanaa, Yemen (CNN)Rebels seized an international airport in Yemen Sunday as a U.N. envoy warned that the country was at “the edge of civil war.”
Houthi militants took over the airport in Taiz as they swept through the city and surrounding province, two officials with the Taiz provincial government said.
One civilian was killed and 82 others wounded when the rebels fired at local residents protesting their presence, the officials said.
The rebels have also seized security and intelligence buildings in Taiz and set up checkpoints in the area, the officials said. Taiz, about 390 kilometers (240 miles) south of Sanaa, is Yemen’s cultural capital.
And, of course, the Houthi rebels are being supported by Iran, the same country that Obama is trying to let develop their nuclear capabilities.
These tensions, moreover, were further exacerbated by Iran’s decision to support the Houthi rebels, the Shia minority in the north of the country, a decision that has helped to further destabilise the country after President Saleh was forced from office in the wake of the original Arab uprisings in 2011.
