A Houthi official said on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia cannot be a mediator in the Yemen war, remarking on a Reuters report of a Gulf Arab initiative to hold consultations among Yemeni parties in the Saudi capital Riyadh.Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, said "Riyadh is a party in the war not a mediator."The Saudi-based GCC is considering inviting the Houthi ...

The United Nations and Yemen’s Houthis have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at resolving the environmental threat posed by a tanker carrying more than 1 million barrels of crude oil that has been moored off the coast of the war-torn Arab nation since the 1980s, the U.N. said Monday.The FSO Safer tanker’s long-term presence in the Red Sea has raised fears of a massive oil sp ...

Houthi movement has denounced a UN security council decision to impose an arms embargo on it without applying this to the Saudi-led coalition waging war on the country.Its Supreme Revolutionary Committee leader Mohamed Ali al-Houthi said the move ignored “crimes” by Saudi Arabia and its allies, which have fought a bloody war to restore ousted Yemeni leader Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to p ...

The United Nations Security Council on Monday imposed an arms embargo on Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis after the group claimed several drone and missile assaults on the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia this year.The measure, proposed by the UAE, expands a targeted U.N. arms embargo on several Houthi leaders to the whole group. It received 11 votes in favour, while the remaining four council m ...

The United Nations Security Council is due to vote Monday on a proposal by the United Arab Emirates to impose an arms embargo on Yemen’s Houthis after the group claimed several drone and missile assaults on the country this year.The measure would expand a targeted UN arms embargo on several Houthi leaders to the whole group. The measure needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, the ...

Yemen´s Houthis have detained another official of the long-closed U.S. Embassy there, bringing the number of local ex-U.S. Embassy staffers in the group's custody to at least 11, according to accounts from Yemeni officials and others.The Houthis, an Iran-backed group that controls the capital, Sanaa, and much of Yemen´s north, took into custody a former press officer from the U.S. Emb ...

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani received a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday concerning ways to support and strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries as well as issues of mutual interest, the Qatari state news agency said.Putin’s letter was delivered to al-Thani by the Russian Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov, who is currently in Doha ...

Saudi Arabia's state-run news agency said 16 people of different nationalities were wounded Monday at an airport in the south as a result of the interception and destruction of a drone carrying explosives launched from Yemen.The Saudi-led coalition that´s battling Yemen´s Houthis was quoted as saying that the bomb-laden drone was targeting King Abdullah Airport in the Saudi city of Ji ...

Yemen’s Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation and Unicef have teamed up to carry out a six-day campaign to vaccinate 2.4 million children against polio in 12 regions under government control.A medical team of more than 12,000 will go door-to-door in residential areas, nurseries and schools to reach children under 10.”This is the first out of three phases which will take p ...

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said that it had received an influx of people with war-related injuries following fighting between pro-Yemeni government forces and the Houthis in Hajjah Governorate."There is a large influx of war-related injuries after the intensification of clashes on the Haradh and Bani Hassan fronts in Hajjah Governorate," MSF said in a statement."The Abs Hospital, supporte ...

Talks aimed at securing the release of five UN workers abducted by Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen have reached a deadlock after the Yemeni government refused to take part in a prisoner swap.A local security official told Arab News on Thursday that tribal negotiators had failed to convince terror group leaders to free the staff who were taken hostage while travelling in the southern province of Abyan ...

The United Nations says there is an agreement in principle for a U.N. plan to transfer crude oil from a tanker moored off the coast of Yemen that has raised concerns of a massive spill due to a lack of maintenance.U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths noted the breakthrough in comments Tuesday to the U.N. Security Council.Griffiths did not provide details of the agreement or when the transfer ...

Five United Nations staff have been abducted in southern Yemen while returning to Aden after a field mission, the United Nations said on Saturday according to a report by Reuters.The staff were abducted on Friday in the Governorate of Abyan, said Russell Geekie, spokesman for the top UN official in Yemen."The United Nations is in close contact with the authorities to secure their release," Geeki ...

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said that it would soon have to reduce the volume of food aid provided to 11 million Yemenis due to lack of funding."Funding shortages are threatening to cut lifesaving support for millions of people in Yemen," OCHA said on Twitter, noting that 11 million people would "soon have to rely on reduced food rations and 4.6 million c ...

The United Arab Emirates shot down a ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Houthis during a visit by Israel's president Monday, the latest attack to rattle the Middle East financial hub.Nobody was hurt in the early-hours attack, the third in consecutive weeks on the wealthy Gulf nation that is part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Iran-backed insurgents."Air defence forces... intercepted ...

Yemen's Houthis fired missiles at the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, with coalition forces hitting back by blowing up the insurgents' launchpad as a sharp escalation of hostilities entered a second week on Monday.Witnesses saw bright flashes arcing over the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi in the early hours of Monday morning as two ballistic missiles were intercepted, scattering debris.Nobody ...

The United Arab Emirates, the tourism and commercial hub of the Gulf region, on Monday said it had foiled a second missile attack by Yemen's Iranian-aligned Houthi movement group, which last week hit a fuel depot in Abu Dhabi, killing three people.The Houthis, battling a Saudi-led coalition that includes the UAE, have said they aim to punish the UAE for backing militias that are blocking their at ...

Seventeen children have been killed in Yemen this month as a result of ongoing fighting in the war-torn country, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said.“According to reports, the number of children killed only since the beginning of the year is 17," Ted Chaiban, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.He added that the number "is n ...

Yemeni detainee Mohammed Ali Salem was lucky a missile fired by warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition on the next ward caused a wave strong enough to shatter the door of his cell.That was how he was able to escape before a second bomb fell.“When they struck Ward 8… the door opened from the pressure and we walked out. God granted us safety, thank God,” he said, recounting the da ...

The UN has condemned an airstrike on a detention centre in northern Yemen as the death toll rose to more than 80.The airstrike in the Houthi-held Sa’ada province on Friday morning followed a Houthi drone attack on the United Arab Emirates on Monday that killed three people. It marks an intensification of violence in the seven-year civil war between the government, supported by a Saudi-led c ...