U.S. Envoy Urges Yemen's Warring Sides to Avoid Widening the War
Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy to Yemen, has warned that peace efforts on Yemen must not be wasted as the Gaza-Israel war rages on. "We've made tremendous progress on the peace process, and these peace efforts should not be squandered," Mr Lenderking told The National on Tuesday. "We advise all parties to not widen this conflict." His comments came after Yemen's Houthis claimed on Monday to have fired drones at Israel. Previously, Lenderking said the Houthi involvement in the Gaza-Israel war is his "worst fear". Last week, the Houthis claimed to have fired missiles and drones at Israeli military targets. Israel later confirmed its Arrow aerial defence system had shot down a missile coming from the Red Sea.
Bipartisan group of U.S. House members joins effort to redesignate Yemen's Houthis as terrorists after their involvement in the Gaza-Israel war, which broke out last month. Reps. Mike Waltz (R-FL) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) led a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken urging him to restore the designation. "Despite their delisting [in] 2021, the Houthis [have] decisively intervened in Israel's conflict on behalf of Hamas," the letter reads. "As this conflict between Israel and Hamas intensifies, the Administration must use every tool available to ensure that the utilization of U.S. military assets remains a last resort. As you know, the FTO designation primarily serves to help isolate the adversarial target from its enablers."
More than 6,000 Somali refugees have returned to their homeland since the start of the voluntary repatriation assistance program. The difficult living conditions in Yemen have led many Somali refugees to consider returning to their homeland, which they left years ago in search of safety and security amidst war. According to reports from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 6,000 Somali refugees have returned to their homeland from Yemen since the commencement of the voluntary repatriation assistance program in 2017. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has stated that it will assist over 1,500 Somali refugees in Yemen in their voluntary return to their country during the coming days of the current year, 2023.
Israel's ground forces in the Gaza Strip aimed on Wednesday to locate and disable Hamas fighters' vast tunnel network beneath the enclave, the next phase in an Israeli offensive that has killed thousands of Palestinians. Since Hamas gunmen killed 1,400 people and took some 240 hostages in an Oct. 7 cross-border gun rampage, Israel has pounded Gaza from the air and used ground troops to divide the coastal enclave in two. Israel says its troops have advanced to the heart of the city, while Hamas says its fighters have inflicted heavy losses on the invading forces.
