CNN: Yemen's President, Cabinet resign

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/07/us-yemen-security-talks-idUSKCN0S10DX20151007?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Ex-Yemen president's party says accepts peace terms

 

The party of Yemen's former president, a main player in the messy, months-old civil war, said in an emailed statement that it accepts a peace plan brokered by the United Nations in talks in Oman.

 

The General People's Congress (GPC) is the party of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, to whom many of the army units fighting alongside the northern Houthi militia against forces backed by Gulf states remain loyal.

 

"An official source at the General People's Congress reiterated the party's fast position on ending hostilities and raising the blockade and on a peaceful solution to Yemen's crisis," the party said in the statement.

 

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, supported by a Saudi-led military coalition and allied to local militias, has ruled out an agreement until the Houthis and Saleh's forces implement a UN resolution by quitting cities and surrendering arms.

 

However, he has also said his government would join the UN-sponsored talks if the Houthis publicly accepted the resolution.

 

The GPC said in its statement that any implementation of UN Security Council resolution 2216 must take place "in accordance with operational mechanisms agreed upon by all parties", implying that a wider agreement should come first.

 

The Gulf-backed forces have in recent weeks pushed the Houthis and Saleh's forces out of Yemen's second city Aden, retaken swathes of the south and mounted an offensive in the Marib area east of the capital Sanaa.

 

The Gulf countries and Hadi have repeatedly said they do not trust Saleh or the Houthis to implement peace agreements because they believe them to have reneged on previous political deals since the start of a 2012 transition from Saleh's rule.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/07/us-yemen-security-talks-idUSKCN0S10DX20151007

Yemen's Houthis, Saleh's party accept U.N. peace terms, eye talks

 

Yemen's Houthi group and the party of the former president have accepted a peace plan brokered by the United Nations in talks in Oman, paving the way for resuming negotiations to end months of conflict in the country.

 

Both groups have said on Wednesday that they had officially on Wednesday notified U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon that they were ready to join talks on a settlement based on a seven-point peace plan proposed by the U.N. in talks in Oman last month.

 

Aid agencies and the U.N. have raised alarm over the human cost of the war, both from fighting that has claimed over 5,000 lives and from a blockade by the Saudi-led coalition supporting Hadi that they say has brought Yemen close to famine.

 

Citing allegations of war crimes, the rights group Amnesty International on Wednesday called for states including the United States and United Kingdom to stop arming the Saudi-led coalition, which has been bombing Yemen for over six months.

 

In his letter dated on Oct. 3, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam confirmed that his group and others allied to it backed the seven-point plan.

 

"The Security Council supports a political settlement for the Yemen crisis and the return to the talks with no preconditions, and so do we," the letter added.

 

Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party also accepted the plan. "An official source at the General People's Congress reiterated the party's fast position on ending hostilities and raising the blockade and on a peaceful solution to Yemen's crisis," it said in a statement.

 

On the other hand....

https://twitter.com/borzou

Wow: "We are a member of the axis of resistance." Yemen Houthi leader asks for increased support from Iran. http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940715001030
12:04 PM

[visionary]

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/prince-faisal-saudi-arabia-lead-region-yemen-iran.html#

Saudi prince alleges capture of Iranian military, Hezbollah in Yemen

 

A former commander in the Saudi navy and expert in special operations said Oct. 6 that Saudi forces have captured Iranian military officers and Hezbollah members in Yemen despite Iran’s claims that it has not intervened militarily on the side of Houthi rebels.

 

Prince Sultan bin Khalid Al-Faisal, a grandson of the late Saudi King Faisal and a nephew of the kingdom’s recently deceased longtime foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, told an audience on Capitol Hill that Saudi Arabia is prepared to lead the Middle East against a host of threats, including “increasing Iranian incursion into other states’ affairs” and the turmoil that has followed the so-called Arab Spring.

 

Sultan, 48, who recently retired from active duty after 20 years in the Saudi military, said he was not speaking on behalf of the Saudi government. But his comments echoed accusations by Saudi officials that Iran is actively intervening in conflicts in Yemen and other Arab countries.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34471968#?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Yemen conflict: 'Deadly attack' on wedding party

 

At least 13 people are reported to have been killed in air strikes that hit a wedding in a rebel-held town in Yemen.

The attack happened in Sanban, about 100km (60 miles) south-east of the capital, Sanaa, witnesses said.

 

It was not clear who was behind the attack but a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out air raids against Houthi rebels.

 

Last month an air strike on a wedding party near the Red Sea port of Mocha killed at least 130 people.

The coalition denied it was responsible for that attack.

 

The latest incident was said to have struck a wedding party being hosted by a tribal leader who is known to support the Houthi rebels. At least 25 people were reported to have been wounded.

 

About 5,000 people, including 2,355 civilians, have been killed in air strikes and fighting on the ground since 26 March, when Houthi fighters and allied army units forced Yemen's internationally recognised president to flee the country.

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/arab-coalition-mops-houthi-pockets-yemen-marib-151012115424934.html

Arab coalition mops up Houthi pockets in Yemen's Marib

 

Forces loyal to the Arab coalition have been trying to consolidate power over the central province of Marib, east of the capital, in an apparent bid to advance on Sanaa, which remains under the control of Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

 

The governor of Marib told Al Jazeera on Monday that forces allied to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Gulf coalition were "perusing the last pockets of Houthis" in the province.

 

Sultan al-Arada said the security committee of the province issued a number of measures to secure the roads leading to the Marib, including the international road.

 

Pro-Hadi forces advanced in Marib after pushing the rebels out of five southern provinces, including the port city of Aden to which the government returned last month after six months in exile.

 

Warplanes belonging to the coalition on Monday launched air strikes on Houthi targets in Taiz, the country's third city, including the medical college near the presidential palace and the 35th Brigade headquarters in the old airport.

 

Houthis, after they overran Sanaa unopposed in September last year, widened their control to several Yemeni provinces, advancing in March on Aden where Hadi had taken refuge before fleeing to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

 

The coalition then launched a fierce air campaign in March against the Houthis and their allies to loyal to the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The coalition has come under mounting criticism over the civilian death toll in its campaign.

 

Last week, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Stephen O'Brien, called for a swift investigation of a suspected deadly air strike on a wedding in Dhamar province the day before.

 

Medical sources said at least 28 people were killed while the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said 51 died. The coalition has categorically denied any bombing there.

 

More than six months of fighting has left over 5,000 dead.

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/14/world/middleeast/bitterness-abounds-in-yemens-north-a-houthi-stronghold.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

Bitterness Abounds in Yemen’s North, a Houthi Stronghold

 

The wars have swept through this northern Yemen province like dreaded seasons over the last decade, crushing earthen homes that had survived for hundreds of years and leaving fresh graves that crowd old cemeteries.

 

The latest war has been the cruelest. In the past six months, aerial bombing by an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia has killed hundreds of people throughout the province and sent thousands fleeing their homes. For a generation of Yemenis, the Saudis, once their country’s biggest benefactor, will be remembered for the destruction they left here, residents say.

 

But the Saudi adversary, the Yemeni rebel group known as the Houthis, also faces harsh scrutiny for its role in the war. With fury and zeal, Houthi fighters turned their heavy guns on cities and imprisoned opponents. The Houthis drew support from what many saw as a cynical wartime alliance with Yemen’s former leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

 

In Saada, the Houthi stronghold where the rebel movement was founded, frustration abounds with all the combatants in the war.

 

“The people of Saada and others are demanding an end to the arguments,” said Hussein Khowlan, 52, among the small group of residents left in Saada, choosing to endure the bombs rather than join the masses in the shabby encampments for the displaced that line Yemen’s roads.

 

Talk of a cease-fire has grown louder in the last few weeks since the Houthis publicly endorsed a United Nations peace plan. But many fear that months of combat may have already hardened the tensions that led to war in the first place. The effect may be to postpone, rather than solve, arguments that have made Yemen chronically fragile.

 

The battles widened the divisions among regions, political parties and tribes. Sunni extremist groups, including a branch of the Islamic State, have emerged in the power vacuum, some fighting alongside the Saudi coalition. While the jihadists have repeatedly attacked the Shiite-led Houthis, the rebels have portrayed all their opponents as extremists, adding a new sectarian dimension to the hostilities.

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/17/world/middleeast/ap-ml-yemen.html?ref=world&_r=0

Hundreds of Sudanese Troops Arrive in Yemen's Aden

 

Hundreds of Sudanese troops arrived in Yemen's southern port city of Aden on Saturday, the first batch of an expected 10,000 reinforcements for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the country's Shiite Houthi rebels, security officials said.

 

The troops' mission is to secure Aden, which has seen an uptick in drive-by shootings of pro-government troop leaders and officials as extremists became more entrenched in the city in recent weeks, the pro-government security officials said.

 

Yemen's fighting pits the Houthis and allied army units against forces loyal to the coalition-backed internationally recognized government as well as southern separatists and other militants.

 

The latest assassination was of an Emirati officer in Aden's Mansoura neighborhood on Friday, killed by gunmen on a motorcycle, officials said. The United Arab Emirates is part of the Saudi-led coalition, which has been pounding rebel positions since March.

 

Although the attack, like several others, went unclaimed, the officials said they suspect Sunni extremists, who they say have made land grabs, exploiting the chaos engulfing the Arab world's poorest country. Yemen's al-Qaida, viewed by Washington as the terror network's most dangerous affiliate, is known to have used motorcycles in previous assassinations.

 

Earlier Saturday, al-Qaida militants set up security checkpoints and began enforcing sex segregation at the sole college in Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan, neutral and pro-government security officials there said.

 

"First they took Mukalla and then Zinjibar. We are all worried Aden may be next," one pro-government security official told The Associated Press.

 

Yemen's al-Qaida branch overran Mukalla, the capital of sprawling Hadramawt province, in April. They have since gender-segregated public spaces there and publicly killed and flogged people, including on charges of "witchcraft," Mukalla residents told The Associated Press last week.

 

Also Saturday, airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition targeting Houthi rebels mistakenly struck a pro-government military encampment, killing at least 20 fighters and wounding another 20 in the latest instance of friendly fire in the anti-rebel camp, security officials said.

 

The fighters had just wrested the encampment from the Houthis in the southern Taiz province when airstrikes hit them, pro-government security officials said.

"They thought the Houthis were still there," one pro-government security official told The Associated Press.

 

Ground commanders have repeatedly complained of slow communication with military leadership in Riyadh, the officials added.

[visionary]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/saudi-arabia-cant-find-its-way-out-of-yemens-messy-war/2015/11/12/4d70ce26-84e1-11e5-8bd2-680fff868306_story.html

Saudi Arabia can’t find its way out of Yemen’s messy war

 

Eight months after launching a war in Yemen, Saudi Arabia appears trapped in a protracted and devastating conflict that is straining relations with its allies, intensifying internal power struggles and emboldening its regional rival, Iran, analysts say.

 

Since March, the key U.S. ally has led a coalition of mostly Gulf Arab countries and Yemeni fighters in a military campaign to drive out Iranian-aligned rebels who seized the capital, Sanaa, and swaths of the Arabian Peninsula country.

 

But the coalition appears increasingly hobbled by divisions and unable to find a face-saving way to end the costly conflict.

 

The rebels, known as Houthis, still control much of Yemen’s north. And in southern areas where the coalition has driven them out, lawlessness has spread as attacks linked to an Islamic State affiliate wreak havoc.

 

“This war is draining the Saudis militarily, politically, strategically,” said Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemen analyst at the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center.

 

“The problem is, they’re stuck there.”

 

Saudi Arabia is the region’s Sunni Muslim powerhouse and fears that Shiite Iran is using the Houthis, who are also Shiite, as proxies in Yemen.

 

The rebels toppled the Yemeni government in February, forcing President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition — which includes Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates — responded with airstrikes and then a ground offensive in an effort to return Hadi’s government to power.

 

Speaking by telephone, Ahmed Asseri, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said it “is too early to make judgments” about the campaign.

 

But as the conflict drags on, mounting civilian casualties and a worsening humanitarian crisis have drawn criticism from international rights groups and lawmakers in the United States, an arms supplier for the key oil producer. More than 5,400 people have been killed since the intervention began, and U.N. officials warn of famine in the desperately poor country of 25 million people.

The relatively small number of Saudi troops fighting in Yemen — estimated at several hundred — signals Saudi rulers’ heightened concern about the potential domestic blowback over casualties from the war, Sayigh said.

 

Despite requests from Saudi Arabia, allies such as Egypt and Pakistan have refused to send in ground forces. Several thousand UAE troops have taken the lead on the ground in Yemen.

 

But allied Yemeni fighters say that the coalition has deployed far too few soldiers, causing a land offensive that started in June to falter.

Click here for more information!

“We haven't received enough support from the coalition,” said Aref Jamel, a senior commander of a militia group that is fighting Houthi rebels in Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city.

 

The battle for Taiz has been especially brutal, with rebels indiscriminately shelling civilian areas and cutting off supplies of water and food to the city. Anti-Houthi militias in the city, which is about 160 miles south of the capital, say they have been left on their own in the fight.

 

In Marib province, also within striking distance of Sanaa, coalition forces appear to be mired in back-and-forth battles. In September, a Houthi-fired missile killed at least 60 Saudi, UAE and Bahraini troops in the province. But it is unclear whether a deployment of reinforcement troops from Qatar — reported by Qatari media after the missile incident — actually arrived, said Ahmed al-Zayedi, a pro-coalition tribesman in Marib.

 

“There isn’t enough support from the coalition, and there is a lot of frustration” among anti-Houthi tribes in the area, he said.

 

Perhaps more alarming for Saudi Arabia is the lawlessness plaguing Aden, the key southern port city that coalition ground forces seized from the rebels in June.

[visionary]

http://archicivilians.com/map-the-military-situation-in-yemen-november-15/

[visionary]

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/194569

Saudi-Led Forces Advance towards Yemen's Besieged Taez

 

Saudi-led coalition forces advanced on Monday towards Yemen's third city Taez after sending major reinforcements in a bid to break a months-long siege by Iran-backed rebels, military officials said.

 

The move comes ahead of an expected offensive to retake the city, seen as a gateway to controlling the rebel-held capital, said the Yemeni officials.

 

Armoured demining vehicles and other reinforcements arrived in the Shuraija region, between the loyalist-controlled Lahj province and Taez in the southwest, said officials in the main southern city of Aden.

 

Sudanese forces from the strategic Al-Anad airbase in Lahj are taking part in the Taez operations, according to the sources.

 

Taez has seen heavy fighting in recent months between the Shiite Huthi rebels and forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's internationally recognised government.

 

Loyalist forces are inside Taez, while the rebels and troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh control the main roads leading into the city.

 

Along the coast, coalition troops deployed in Dhubab in a bid to advance onto the Red sea city of Mocha, a part of Taez province which is under rebel control, the sources said.

 

On Sunday, military officials spoke of major coalition reinforcements of troops and equipment arriving to Taez from Aden.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/12/03/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN0TL0BQ20151203?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews#mgywA1tjfjz720aS.97

Al Qaeda militants take over two south Yemen towns, residents say
 

Al Qaeda fighters retook on Wednesday two southern Yemeni towns they briefly occupied four years ago, residents and local fighters said, exploiting the collapse of central authority in Yemen in its eight-month war.

 

In an early morning surprise attack on the capital of Abyan province, Zinjibar, and the neighbouring town of Jaar, the militants overcame local forces and announced their takeover over loudspeakers after dawn prayers.

 

Residents identified them as Ansar al-Sharia, a local affiliate of al Qaeda.

 

At least seven local militiamen and five militants were killed, according to local fighters. Militants were deployed to the streets of both towns, and in Jaar blew up the house of a local commander killed in the fighting, residents said. Schools and shops were closed.

 

Later on Wednesday, a clinic in the southern city of Taiz run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was hit by airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition, the medical aid group said.

 

The Saudi-led coalition since March has been trying to defeat Yemen's Iran-backed Shi'ite Houthis, who captured large parts of the country and wrested control from its government, which only recently returned from exile.

 

"The entrance of al Qaeda this time happened in the absence of any state institutions, which al Qaeda exploited," said Zinjibar resident Fadl Mohammed Mubarak.

 

Jaar and Zinjibar are about 50 km (30 miles) east of the main port city of Aden, where President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is staying after returning from Saudi Arabia last month.

 

Parts of Abyan including Zinjibar and Jaar fell to Islamist militants in 2011 for over a year as government control waned during Arab Spring protests.

 

This time, Yemen's northern Houthi clan and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh are fighting against the Saudi-led Arab coalition and fighters loyal to Hadi.

 

MSF said in a statement on Wednesday that seven people had been wounded, two critically, when airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition destroyed a mobile clinic in Taiz where it provides medical care.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-hanish-idUSKBN0TT0X520151210?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Arab coalition seizes Yemeni Red Sea islands from Houthis, Saleh
 

Arab coalition forces have captured a Yemeni Red Sea archipelago used by Iran-allied Houthis for storing and smuggling weapons into Yemen, the Saudi-led alliance and local fishermen said on Thursday.

 

The Saudi-led coalition has been trying to dislodge the Houthis and forces loyal to their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, from areas captured since September last year and to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.

 

The Houthis control most of the former north Yemen from Taiz in the south to Saada in the north, giving them control of Yemen's Red Sea coast.

 

The coalition said its forces "cleansed Greater Hanish", the biggest island in the archipelago in the Red Sea's main shipping lanes, Saudi state television said.

 

The islands, it said, were controlled by Yemeni soldiers loyal to Saleh and used by the Houthis to store weapons and smuggle them into Hodeida, Yemen's main Red Sea port.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-gulf-summit-yemen-idUSKBN0TT11M20151210?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Gulf states call for Yemen reconstruction meeting after peace deal

 

Gulf Arab states called on Thursday for an international reconstruction conference for Yemen after any deal to end its civil war, which has killed 6,000 people and caused widespread damage to the country's economy and infrastructure.

 

The call came in a statement by Gulf Cooperation Council leaders at the conclusion of a summit meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh. It was read out by GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani.

 

Yemeni warring parties are due to gather in Switzerland next week for United Nations-sponsored peace talks.

 

"The council (GCC) members called for an international conference for Yemen reconstruction after the parties reach the aspired political solution," Zayani said in the statement broadcast on Saudi state television.

A seven-day ceasefire is expected to take effect when the peace talks commence on December 15.

 

Yemen's new foreign minister, appointed by Hadi last week, said on Wednesday the ceasefire would be automatically renewed if the Houthis abided by it.

[visionary]

https://news.vice.com/article/the-future-of-yemen-hangs-in-the-balance-at-the-un-talks-in-switzerland

The Future of Yemen Hangs in the Balance at the UN Talks in Switzerland

 

After nearly nine months of war, a tentative week-long ceasefire in Yemen began on Tuesday, as representatives from the country's warring parties sat down for make or break peace talks in Switzerland.

 

Sporadic fighting continued to be reported after the ceasefire took effect at noon local time, including in the hotly contested city of Taiz, where some local forces resisting Houthi rebels refused to cooperate with the deal. But the Saudi-backed government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthis said they had agreed to temporarily cease hostilities, possibly providing a desperately needed window for humanitarian aid to reach the more than 20 million Yemenis in need of assistance.

 

It's war largely fought in the media shadow of other regional conflicts, Yemen has been ripped apart at the seams since late March, when Riyadh's coalition began bombing Houthi forces and their allies loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Nearly 6,000 people — about half of them civilians — have been killed since then. According to the UN and human rights workers, the majority of civilian deaths have resulted from coalition airstrikes, which are backed by American logistical and intelligence assistance.

 

"Our meeting this week in Switzerland comes at a crucial moment in which threats and dangers abound and challenges are increasing both locally and regionally," said Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN's special envoy for Yemen, in a statement. "The failure to reach a solution will have disastrous human and material consequences for the nation."

 

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/2015/12/14/united-arab-emirates/77289732/

152 Feared Dead in Yemen Ballistic Missle Strike

 

One hundred and fifty-two coalition soldiers are feared dead after a short range ballistic missile strike hit a coalition base at the strategic Bab al-Mandab region in the south, a coalition source told Defense News.

 

Among the dead in the attack, which took place Monday afternoon, was the commander of the Saudi Special Forces, Col. Abdullah Al Sahyan, the source confirmed.

 

"So far, nine Emirati soldiers, seven Moroccans and 23 Saudis have been identified," the source added.

 

The missile strike was conducted by OTR-21 Tochka mobile missile launch system for short range ballistic missiles, the source said.

 

The Saudi-led Arab coalition also announced Monday that the planned cease-fire in the country will start at 12:00 midday, Sanaa time, 9:00 am GMT, on Tuesday, Dec. 15.

 

"The coalition reserves its right to respond to any breach of the seven-day truce which is renewable on December 21 in case of compliance by the other party (the Houthis)", according to a statement by the command, carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

 

The command of the coalition reaffirmed commitment to supporting the Yemeni people and their internationally recognized government, and contributing to the efforts aiming to reach a political settlement to the Yemeni crisis, SPA reported.

 

The decision to declare a ceasefire came in response to an initiative contained in a letter by Yemeni President Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz, the statement pointed out.

 

The truce takes effect in synchronization with the UN-sponsored peace talks between the government, on one hand, and the Houthi rebels and supporters of the ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, on the other.

 

The talks, due in Switzerland on Tuesday, aim to reach a lasting peace deal based on the UN Security Council Resolution 2216.

 

"The Houthis fired a long-range missile at a secret headquarters of the pro-government military leadership close to the strategic strait of Bab al-Mandab, killing more than 100 men of the coalition," said Shehab Al Makahleh, a political analyst and director of Geostrategic Media Middle East.

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/yemens-warring-parties-begin-mass-prisoner-swap-172659767.html;_ylt=AwrBT8AYpnFWEr0AmnJXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyYjUwMmQzBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjExNzlfMQRzZWMDc2M-

Yemen's warring parties begin mass prisoner swap

 

Yemeni pro-government forces and Iran-backed rebels on Wednesday began an exchange of hundreds of detainees, an official said, as UN-brokered peace talks continued in Switzerland.

 

"We have started the exchange in small groups," said Mokhtar al-Rabbash, a member of the prisoners' affairs committee which is close to the government, citing security concerns.

 

The swap, which is expected to include 375 Huthi rebels and 285 pro-government fighters, is taking place in the southern province of Lahj, along the borders with Baida province, witnesses said.

 

"Due to the security situation, we had to divide the prisoners into groups of 20 each," said Rabbash, adding that the detainees are being transferred in buses.

 

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Sanaa, which was involved in a previous prisoner swap, said earlier the organisation was "not aware of such an exchange".

 

Little news has emerged from the open-ended talks in Switzerland aimed at ending the deadly conflict, as a fragile ceasefire in Yemen that took effect at midday local time on Tuesday appeared generally to be holding.

[visionary]

http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:3086c9a6c7f046e09b5a3c61344d2194

Yemen rebels halt peace talks in Switzerland, set conditions

 

Yemeni peace talks in Switzerland were halted on Friday after the country's Shiite rebel delegation suspended all meetings with the internationally recognized government in protest over its cease-fire violations, members of Yemen's two warring sides told The Associated Press.

 

The rebels, known as Houthis, said they would not resume talks unless the U.N. condemned the breaches by government forces of the week-long truce, the delegates said. Houthi fighters have also ignored the cease-fire agreement.

 

But the United Nations, which is mediating the talks, cast doubts on the alleged suspension.

 

"In my latest meeting with the heads of delegations, they all renewed their commitment for a ceasefire," the U.N. special envoy for the country, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, tweeted Friday evening.

 

The deputy spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Farhan Haq, told the AP that the U.N. had no confirmation of any suspension of talks and that Ahmed "remains in touch with the parties."

 

The U.N. later said Ahmed "held several sessions with the participants on the fourth day of the peace talks." Its statement also said Ahmed was "deeply concerned at reports of violations of the cessation of hostilities announced earlier today."

 

The U.N. has urged all factions in the conflict to end the violence and is pressing to keep the talks going. The Houthis appeared to be tactically stalling to avoid meeting their obligations under a deal reached with the government a day earlier, government delegates told the AP.

 

On Thursday, the Houthis agreed to permit the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries into the besieged city of Taiz and to exchange prisoners, including the government's Defense Minister Mahmoud al-Sabahi — concessions they were reluctant to make.

 

The war in Yemen pits the Houthis and army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against pro-government forces, which are backed by a U.S.-supported, Saudi-led coalition, as well as southern separatists, religious extremists and other militants.

 

The peace negotiations began Tuesday at the Swiss Olympic House in the village of Macolin, a training center for elite athletes. Police armed with automatic weapons patrolled outside the facility, which was cordoned off with metal barriers requiring journalists to keep about 50 meters (yards) away.

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/coalition-battling-rebels-yemen-probe-abuses-160131175307510.html

Coalition battling rebels in Yemen to probe abuses

 

The command of Arab coalition, battling Houthi rebels in Yemen, has announced the creation of an independent commission of inquiry to examine charges of possible abuses against civilians in the conflict.

 

In a brief statement published by the official Saudi SPA news agency on Sunday, the coalition command said it had formed "an independent team of experts in international humanitarian law and weapons to assess the incidents and investigate the rules of engagement".

 

The coalition said the objective was to "develop a clear and comprehensive report on each incident with the conclusions, lessons learned, recommendations and measures that should be taken" to spare civilians.

 

The statement followed a UN report which concluded that civilian targets were part of the coalition air strikes in Yemen.

 

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the coalition said on Sunday that American and British military experts were advising its forces on how to improve aerial targeting and reduce civilian casualties.

 

"Experts from the United States ... (will) work on extensive reports and develop operating mechanisms, together with the British side," Saudi coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri told journalists in Riyadh.

 

He said the advisers held a workshop in recent days at the coalition headquarters.

 

The conflict in Yemen has killed more than 5,800 people and wounded 27,000, according to UN figures.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-talks-idUSKCN0WA1HX

Yemen's Houthis in Saudi for talks on ending war: sources

 

A delegation from the Houthi movement is in Saudi Arabia for talks on ending Yemen's war, two senior officials said, in what appeared to be the most serious attempt to date to end the conflict.

 

The visit is the first of its kind since the war began in March last year between Iran-allied Houthi forces, and an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, Iran's main regional rival.

 

The visit began on Monday at the invitation of Saudi authorities, following a week of secret preparatory talks, said the two senior officials from the administrative body that runs parts of Yemen controlled by the Houthis.

 

About 6,000 people, half of them civilians, have died in the fighting in Yemen, raising fears of a wider regional confrontation between Shi'ite power Iran and Sunni kingdom Saudi Arabia.

 

Underlining the regional rifts, a senior Iranian military official signaled on Tuesday that Iran could send military advisers to Yemen to help the Houthis.

 

The Houthi delegation in Saudi Arabia is headed by Mohammed Abdel-Salam, the Houthis' main spokesman and a senior adviser to Houthi leader, Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the officials said.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-cornered-idUSKCN0WB0IL?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Yemen war generates widespread suffering, but few refugees

 

Amid Yemen's misery, two young women living in the war-damaged cities of Aden and Sanaa know they are among the relatively fortunate. They are not starving, their homes have not been destroyed and they have survived bombs and bullets unscathed.

 

But both long to escape the conflict plunging their country ever deeper into catastrophe. Neither can see a way out.

 

"I don't want to lose my life over a dream," says Nisma al-Ozebi, a 21-year-old civil engineering student in the southern port city of Aden. She hankers for a scholarship that would be her passport to a sanctuary in Europe, but adds: "I don't want to leave Yemen and live like a refugee."

 

Yemen's civil war intensified sharply almost a year ago when a Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened with air strikes, a naval blockade and ground troops to counter Houthi rebels intent on seizing the whole country.

 

The Houthis, Zaidi Shi'ite tribesmen now allied with an old enemy, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, are seen by Riyadh as tools of regional arch-foe Iran, a charge they and Tehran deny.

 

"You feel like death is waiting in every place," says Kholood al-Absi, 27, who lost her job with an oil services company in Sanaa late last year. "From the air it's Saudi planes. From the ground it's Houthis, car bombs, explosions, clashes. You feel the lives of Yemenis are very cheap."

[visionary]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d50e4c7e0d724c128d07a978cd679ee6/yemeni-officials-say-government-rebels-agree-ceasefire

Yemeni officials say government, rebels, agree on ceasefire

 

Yemeni Shiite rebels and the internationally recognized government have agreed to begin a ceasefire for a week or two before their next round of negotiations which are expected in April, Yemeni officials said Sunday.

 

The officials participated in Sunday's talks in Sanaa, the capital, between the rebels and the U.N. envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

 

According to the officials, the Shiite rebels known as Houthis have agreed to implement a U.N. security council resolution which requires them to hand over their weapons and withdraw from territory they occupy, including Sanaa.

 

Officials with the internationally recognized government also said Sunday they agree to the ceasefire as a first step for the warring sides to show their good intentions.

 

Previous attempts to implement a ceasefire in Yemen have failed to take hold on the ground, with each side accusing the other of immediately violating the terms.

 

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2016/3/20/yemen-houthis-ready-to-withdraw-from-sanaa?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Yemen Houthis 'ready' to withdraw from Sanaa

 

Yemen's warring parties could take part in a ceasefire for between one and two weeks, as negotiations on ending the conflict reach another round.

 

Talks between Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the internationally-recognised President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi are expected to restart next month.

It comes after Houthi rebels took part in talks in the capital Sanaa on Sunday with UN Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

 

Houthi leaders agreed to implement a UN security council resolution which requires them to hand over weapons and withdraw from territory, including the capital.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to reporters, AP reported.

 

There are still only slim hopes the deal will be implemented and previous attempts to implement a ceasefire have failed with both sides blaming one another.

[visionary]

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2016-03-31/houthi-hezbollah

The Houthi Hezbollah

 

Iran's Train-and-Equip Program in Sanaa

 

On February 24, the Saudi Arabia–­owned Al Arabiya news network posted a video of what it claimed was a meeting last summer between Hezbollah commander Abu Saleh and Houthi forces in Yemen. The video shows a man in military fatigues addressing a group in Lebanese-accented Arabic about training for assassination operations inside Saudi Arabia, including a specific attack against an unnamed Saudi commander of border forces.

 

The current war in Yemen began with the country’s unsuccessful political transition following the ouster of longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Popular protests in 2011, led by youth who were inspired by protests in Egypt and Tunisia, quickly turned violent. Soon after, Yemen faced the prospect of a civil war. A Saudi-brokered initiative, backed by the European Union, United Kingdom, and United States, transferred power from Saleh to his vice president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, during a one-candidate election in February 2012.

 

This transition was faulty from the start. Yemen’s youth and the Houthis rejected the election as an establishment-brokered arrangement. They were soon joined by Saleh loyalists, who witnessed their political and military clout diminish. The UN-sponsored National Dialogue Conference tried to work with Yemeni political parties to implement constitutional reforms but was stymied when it came to establishing power-sharing agreements. Political deadlock soon turned into armed conflict, and Houthi forces—backed by Saleh’s General People’s Congress—defeated their political rivals in the north over the course of 2013 and 2014.

 

By September 2014, a coalition of Saleh loyalists and Houthi militants moved south,

[visionary]

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/al-houthis-concede-return-of-yemeni-government-to-capital-1.1713756

Al Houthis concede return of Yemeni government to capital

 

Al Mukalla: Iran-backed Al Houthi militants have agreed to allow Yemen’s legitimate government back to operate in the Yemeni capital Sana’a.

 

They have also agreed to hand over heavy arms to the state, Al Houthi spokesman Mohammad Abdul Salam told Kuwait’s daily Al Rai on Friday.

 

The comments come ahead of Monday’s talks in Kuwait that bring Yemen’s rival parties back to the negotiating table.

 

Abdul Salam said the militant group would also allow Yemen’s current vice president Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar, and influential oil and telecom tycoon, Hamad Al Ahmar, back into Sana’a.

 

The promised concessions by Al Houthis herald a major shift in their policy, analysts say.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0XS0WT

Yemen officials say peace talks suspended after Houthis seize base

 

The Yemeni government suspended direct peace talks to end the country's civil war on Sunday after the Houthi movement and its armed allies seized a military base north of the capital Sanaa, two members of the official delegation to the talks said.

 

The Houthi assault killed several of the soldiers defending the Umaliqa base. Unlike most of Yemen's soldiers, those at Umaliqa had refused to take sides in the war between the Iran-allied Houthis and the Saudi-backed government.

 

The Houthis had tolerated this neutrality until they launched a surprise push into the facility in Amran province and seized its large cache of weapons at dawn, local officials said.

 

"We have suspended the sessions indefinitely to protest these military actions and continued violations of the truce," one member of the government delegation to the Yemen peace talks in Kuwait told Reuters.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-fighting-idUSKCN10A0FQ?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29

Coalition warplanes attack Houthi fighters near Saudi border: sources

 

Warplanes of a Saudi-led coalition bombed Houthi fighters from Yemen seeking to infiltrate Saudi Arabia on Saturday, killing tens of Houthi militiamen, security sources said.

 

The bombing took place on the Yemeni side of the border close to the Saudi city of Najran, they said. Clashes were also seen in the northwestern Yemeni town of Haradh which borders the kingdom, witnesses told Reuters.

 

The flare-up in fighting was one of the worst since peace talks began in Kuwait in April between Yemen’s government and the Houthis to end a 16-month conflict that has left more than 6,400 people dead, nearly half of them civilians, and displaced more than 2.5 million.

 

A truce that began in April has slowed the momentum of fighting, but violence continues almost daily.

 

Prospects for progress in the talks dimmed further this week when Houthi rebels and their allies in the political party of a militarily powerful former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, announced they had decided to form a political council to unilaterally rule the country.

 

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the United Nations Yemen envoy, said the move gravely violated U.N. Security Council Resolution 2216, which calls on the Houthis "to refrain from further unilateral actions that could undermine the political transition in Yemen".

 

http://pilotonline.com/news/military/local/chesapeake-man-was-tortured-and-killed-by-houthi-rebels-in/article_e7ffd6ab-8903-5850-9da1-ccb58bdadba3.html

Chesapeake man was tortured and killed by Houthi rebels in Yemen, federal lawsuit says

 

Houthi rebels tortured and killed a Chesapeake man in Yemen last year after detaining and accusing him and another American contractor of being spies after they arrived in the war-torn country on a United Nations plane, according to a federal lawsuit by the men’s families.

 

The complaint filed this month in Washington accuses the Syrian and Iranian governments of sponsoring terrorism by providing material support to the Houthis, a Shiite rebel group.

 

The court document provides the first detailed account of John Hamen’s capture and death, which first was made public in November when his wife posted on Facebook that the Army veteran and father of seven had died in captivity within weeks of arriving in the Middle Eastern country as a State Department contractor.

 

At the time, the Houthis still held the other contractor and the State Department and United Nations were saying little about why the men were arrested at the Sanaa airport Oct. 20 and what happened to them. The other contractor – Mark McAlister of Greenfield, Tenn. – was released into U.S. custody in April.

 

The lawsuit contends that Hamen and McAlister were imprisoned to compel Saudi Arabia to stop bombing Yemen or to use the men as a negotiating tactic to secure the release of other combatants. The lawsuit says all efforts to secure Hamen’s release through hostage negotiations were “fruitless.”

 

The Houthis took Hamen’s body to a local hospital Nov. 6, then transferred it to the U.S. embassy in Oman where he was identified by his tattoos, the lawsuit says. State Department officials told Hamen’s wife the Houthis found her husband dead in his room.

 

But an autopsy performed at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware concluded the cause of death was asphyxia and the manner of death was homicide, the lawsuit says. The autopsy noted that Hamen had sizable lacerations on his head, fractured right ribs and many abrasions and contusions.

 

“The primary evidence of torture is from John Hamen’s autopsy,” Randy Singer, a Virginia Beach attorney representing the Hamen and McAlister families, said in an email. “Although Mark McAlister did not witness the physical torture of John, since they were separated soon after they were taken hostage, his testimony of the conditions, and of what he does know about John’s captivity, is consistent with the autopsy report.”

 

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/saudi-arabia-yemen-russia-syria-foreign-policy-united-nations-blackmail-214124#ixzz4Ftr7kARE

As the Saudis Covered Up Abuses in Yemen, America Stood By

[visionary]

 

[visionary]

 

 

[visionary]

 

[visionary]

Oh great....  ****ing Saleh.  He really should be in jail somewhere.