The Iranian government yesterday called for an end to Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Yemen and the immediate resumption of talks, in its first public statement since Iran-backed Houthi rebels entered a key Yemeni port and intensified their threat to a key global shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.
In a statement carried by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Yemen’s sovereignty must be respected and its problems cannot be resolved through a blockade or military alliances.
Iran said it was ready to help support negotiations.
Photo: AP
Meanwhile, experts say the developments in Yemen could give Tehran more leverage in any negotiations with the US after more than six months of war.
The Houthis’ entry into the Red Sea port of Mokha on Thursday brought the group within 80km of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, an important alternative for global shipping as Iran targets vessels on the Strait of Hormuz.
It is the rebels’ biggest territorial gain in years.
The Bab el-Mandeb at the southern end of the Red Sea is especially important to neighboring Saudi Arabia, a key US ally, with its blockade of the Houthis feeding into the rebels’ escalating attacks on Saudi Arabian shipping as the kingdom tries to get its oil out of the region.
Saudi Arabia, which earlier this week said it had always offered “opportunities for negotiation,” also has said it has the right to defend itself in response to the Houthis’ actions under the blockade they declared on the kingdom in July.
The National Defense Council of Yemen’s Saudi Arabian-backed and internationally recognized government on Thursday condemned the Houthis’ renewed attacks on Saudi Arabia, saying it would respond to threats.
It said a military operation by Yemeni forces would not be limited to a single front.
The sharply escalating fighting threatens to end a fragile truce that had largely halted Yemen’s civil war since 2022.
At stake are the 40 million people in the Arab world’s poorest country who fear a return to the conflict that killed 150,000 and brought many others to the brink of famine.
The Houthis have been at war with Yemen’s government since 2014, when the rebels swept from their mountainous heartland and seized much of northern and central Yemen.
Saudi Arabia entered the war the following year on behalf of the government.
Hans Grundberg, the UN’s envoy to Yemen, warned that the nation now faces the “harsh reality” of a return to war.
Grundberg told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday afternoon that the international community must address this “new and more dangerous phase — one whose consequences, if left unchecked, will not stay within Yemen’s borders.”
Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr on Tuesday hit out at China at an international forum after a memo asserting Beijing’s position over their longstanding maritime dispute was delivered to him while he was speaking on stage. The unusual incident was captured on video at the Seoul Defense Dialogue as the secretary was responding to a question about “gray zone” coercion in the South China Sea. The video shows what appears to be a conference staffer placing it on the table next to him while speaking. “I have a note here, I think this is from China,” he said, describing
PAINSTAKING PROCESS: Ice makers freeze water for up to 72 hours, replace tainted water with a fresh batch once freezing begins, and are constantly stirring In the historic Japanese city of Kanazawa, craftsmen painstakingly shape and slice blocks of ice destined to chill negronis in some of the world’s trendiest bars. The men work for Kuramoto Ice, a century-old company in Ishikawa on the Sea of Japan coast and one of dozens of Japanese firms producing ultra-clear, premium ice. This luxury product, believed by those in the industry to melt more slowly than regular blocks, is a staple of Japan’s cocktail culture, but its popularity is also spilling over to bars abroad, from the US to Australia, who pay as much as ￥200 (US$1.28) per cube. Kuramoto Ice
COMMITMENT: China could view reduced US-Seoul exercises as an opportunity to reassert itself, but the US had reassured Manila of its resolve, the defense chief said China could see recent cuts to US-South Korean military exercises as an opportunity to reassert itself in the Indo-Pacific region, Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro said yesterday, though he said Washington had assured Manila that its commitments to the Philippines remained unchanged. Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the Seoul Defense Dialogue, Teodoro said there had been no reduction in US-Philippine military activities, and that bilateral and multilateral cooperation involving Manila continued to expand. US President Donald Trump’s decision last month to scale back military exercises with South Korea has prompted debate among security analysts over the credibility of US
China yesterday marked half a century since the death of Mao Zedong (毛澤東), founder of the People’s Republic, who brought roughly one-quarter of the world’s population under communist rule and whose specter still haunts China’s future. Mao’s death on Sept. 9, 1976, at age 82, mourned by many and welcomed by some who suffered under his nearly three-decade rule, also hastened the end of the Cultural Revolution, a frenzied mass movement he launched in 1966. The party later condemned the Cultural Revolution as a grave error for which Mao bore primary responsibility, but still reveres him, saying his achievements outweigh his mistakes. Mao’s
RSS