Latest news with #MohammedGhobari
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Seafarers stranded off Yemen port eye exit after US-Houthi ceasefire deal
By Jonathan Saul and Mohammed Ghobari ADEN (Reuters) - Some 200 seafarers aboard more than 15 ships stuck for weeks off Yemen's port of Ras Isa are preparing to offload cargoes and leave thanks to a ceasefire deal between Houthi militia and the U.S., maritime and labour union sources said on Thursday. Still, threat levels for shipping remained high given the Houthis' confirmation that Israeli-related assets remained open to attack and the attendant risks to broader shipping, maritime officials said. Ships with no connection to Israel had been targeted in the past with no certainty of safe passage. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday the U.S. would stop bombing the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen as they had agreed to stop targeting U.S. ships in Red Sea waters off the Arabian Peninsula country. However, the deal does not cover close U.S. ally Israel, the Houthis stated on Wednesday, suggesting its attacks on shipping in professed solidarity with Palestinian militants fighting Israel in Gaza might not come to a complete halt. A nearly two-month-long U.S. bombing campaign in Yemen dealt heavy damage to the Houthis, with a spillover impact on shipping in the Ras Isa region on the Red Sea, a critical artery for world trade. Several crew members on ships in the vicinity of U.S. air strikes were injured, and two vessels prevented from sailing away by Houthis, according to the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), the biggest seafarers' union. A Houthi official told Reuters that following the agreement with Washington, ships should now be able to enter Ras Isa, discharge cargoes and depart without issues. At least one of the vessels - mainly tankers carrying fuel supplies including liquefied petroleum gas - was moving into the port to begin discharging cargo on Thursday, according to ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform. NO GUARANTEE OF SAFE PASSAGE While the risk of collateral damage from airstrikes has abated, seafarers remained concerned about Israeli attacks on Houthi targets in the region. In response to Houthi drones launched at Israel over the past week, Israeli warplanes hit the major Yemeni Red Sea port of Hodeidah, causing some damage, shipping sources said. Some of the vessels stuck have been waiting for weeks to discharge in Ras Isa and were urgently seeking to leave the area, the captain of one of the vessels, who declined to be identified due to the sensitive situation, told Reuters. "The ITF is working urgently to support these crews, but they need more than words; they need safe passage home," ITF General Secretary Stephen Cotton said. The Houthis have carried out more than 100 attacks on ships plying the Red Sea since November 2023, saying they were acting in support of Palestinians in Israeli-besieged Gaza. They have sunk two vessels, seized one and killed at least four seafarers. There have been no known attacks since January this year. Many shipping companies have halted voyages through the Red Sea amid uncertainty over whether the ceasefire deal will stick. "We do not send ships in until we are sure that the people on board are safe," Lasse Kristoffersen, CEO with shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen, told Reuters on Thursday. "We have no information at this time to suggest that."
Japan Today
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
U.S.-Houthi ceasefire deal does not include Israel, says Houthi spokesperson
By Mohammed Ghobari A ceasefire deal between Yemen's Houthis and the U.S. does not include sparing Israel, the group said on Wednesday, suggesting its shipping attacks that have disrupted global trade and challenged world powers will not come to a complete halt. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday the U.S. would stop bombing the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, saying that the group had agreed to stop attacking U.S. ships. After Trump made the announcement, Oman said it had mediated the ceasefire deal to halt attacks on U.S. vessels. There have been no reports of Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea area since January. "The agreement does not include Israel in any way, shape or form," Mohammed Abdulsalam, the chief Houthi negotiator, told Reuters. "As long as they announced the cessation (of U.S. strikes) and they are actually committed to that, our position was self-defense so we will stop." The Houthis said they targeted Israel with drones, the group's military spokesperson said in a televised address later on Wednesday. He reiterated they would also carry out strikes against the U.S. if Washington resumes its attacks on Yemen. The Israeli military said earlier in the day it intercepted a drone that was launched from the east, without identifying its exact location. Israeli media, however, reported a missile which was launched from Yemen at Israel fell outside the country's borders. While tensions may have eased between the United States and the Houthis, a resilient force that withstood years of heavy Saudi-led bombing in Yemen's civil war, the agreement does not rule out attacks on any other Israel-linked vessels or targets. Iran welcomes the "end of the U.S. aggression" on Yemen, its Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday, thanking Oman for its efforts in this regard. The U.S. intensified strikes on the Houthis this year, to stop attacks on Red Sea shipping. Rights activists have raised concerns over civilian casualties. "They said 'please don't bomb us any more and we're not going to attack your ships'," Trump said of the Houthis during an Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. "And I will accept their word, and we are going to stop the bombing of the Houthis effective immediately." GAZA WAR The Houthis have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea since Israel began its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza after the Palestinian militant group's deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The U.S. military has said it has struck more than 1,000 targets since its current operation in Yemen, known as Operation Rough Rider, started on March 15. The strikes, the U.S. military said, have killed "hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders". Tensions have been high since the Gaza war began, but have risen further since a Houthi missile landed near Israel's Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, prompting Israeli airstrikes on Yemen's Hodeidah port on Monday. The Israeli military carried out an airstrike on Yemen's main airport in Sanaa on Tuesday, its second attack in two days on Iran-aligned Houthi rebels after a surge in tensions between the group and Israel. Under former President Joe Biden's administration, the U.S. and Britain retaliated with air strikes against Houthi targets in an effort to keep open the crucial Red Sea trading route - the path for about 15% of global shipping traffic. After Trump became U.S. president in January, he decided to significantly intensify air strikes against the Houthis. The campaign came after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden. On April 28, a suspected U.S. airstrike hit a migrant centre in Yemen, and Houthi TV says 68 people were killed. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Japan Today
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
Israeli strikes Yemen's Hodeidah Port after Houthi attack on Israel
By Mohammed Ghobari, Jaidaa Taha and Menna AlaaElDin The Israeli military said it carried out airstrikes against Yemen's Hodeidah Port on Monday, a day after the Iran-aligned Houthis fired a missile that struck near Israel's main airport. The military said in a statement that it attacked what it called Houthi terrorist targets in Hodeidah and its vicinity. The strikes injured at least 21 people, the Houthi-run health ministry spokesman Anees al-Asbahi said. The Houthis shut down the area around the port and cement factory following the strikes, three sources said. They said the extent of the damage at the port was unknown, yet the intensity of the strikes and fire caused severe damage to the containers' berth. Two other sources estimated the damage at 70% of the port's five docks, warehouses and customs area. The strikes occurred as two ships were unloading their cargo, with traffic at the port at a complete standstill, a worker at the port said. The port is the second-largest in the Red Sea after Aden and is the entry point for about 80% of Yemen's food than 10 strikes targeted Hodeidah Port and the Al Salakhanah and Al Hawak neighbourhoods in the city of Hodeidah, five residents told Reuters. Four strikes also targeted a cement factory east of Hodeidah. "The attack was carried out in response to repeated attacks carried out by the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel in which surface-to-surface missiles and unmanned aircraft were launched at the territory of the state and its citizens," the Israeli military said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate for Sunday's missile attack, which was the first known to have escaped interception by Israel's air defences in a series of attacks since March. Houthi official Abdul Qader al-Mortada said in an X post commenting on the attack that Israel should wait for the "unimaginable". The Yemeni group resumed its attacks on Israel and shipping lanes following a brief suspension after the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza ended. The Houthis, who control Yemen, have been firing at Israel and shipping in the Red Sea since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians. A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity said that U.S. forces were not actively involved in Monday's strikes, but there is general coordination between the two allies, the official said. Meanwhile, an oil company operated by the Houthis announced it has begun operating an emergency system for supplying cars with fuel, owing to difficulties in unloading cargo at the oil port of Ras Isa. The company, in a statement, attributed the decision to U.S. strikes on the country, including the port. U.S. President Donald Trump in March ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis. The strikes have killed hundreds of people in Yemen while Israel has largely limited its strikes on Yemen since December last year. Earlier on Monday, Israel approved a plan that may include seizing the Gaza Strip and controlling aid to the Palestinian enclave. The war in Gaza started after Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's offensive on Gaza has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, Gaza health officials have said, and destroyed much of the enclave. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US strikes Houthi strongholds in Yemen where leaders are hiding, Yemeni sources say
By Mohammed Ghobari ADEN/DUBAI (Reuters) -The U.S. hit targets across Yemen in airstrikes overnight, including Saada province, which Yemeni sources say is a long-time hideout for Iran-aligned Houthi leaders, and the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah. Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported more than 10 strikes on various locations, including the Al-Safra district of Saada. The area houses weapons storage and training sites, and is considered one of the group's most important and heavily fortified military strongholds, according to Yemeni sources. The strikes, launched on Saturday over the Houthis' attacks against Red Sea shipping, are the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. The Iran-aligned Houthis have carried out over 100 attacks on shipping after Israel's war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza's Palestinians. The attacks have disrupted global commerce and set the U.S. military off on a costly campaign to intercept missiles. Houthi leaders say they will escalate attacks in response to the U.S. campaign. Jamal Amer, the Houthi foreign minister, told Reuters from Sanaa on Monday: "Now we see that Yemen is at war with the U.S. and that means that we have a right to defend ourselves with all possible means, so escalation is likely." The Houthis are part of what has been called the "Axis of Resistance" - an anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias including Hamas, Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq, all backed by Iran. Trump threatened to hold Iran accountable for any future Houthi attacks, warning of severe consequences. Two senior Iranian officials told Reuters that Iran had delivered a verbal message to the Houthi envoy in Tehran asking the group to cool tensions. LEADERSHIP IN HIDING The Houthis, who have taken control of most of Yemen over the past decade, said last week they would resume attacks on Israeli ships after weeks of relative calm in the Red Sea following a Gaza ceasefire in January. Under the leadership of Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the force has grown to number tens of thousands and has built a sophisticated arsenal of drones and ballistic missiles. Since airstrikes started under former U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, the group has moved its weapons away from known military sites, Yemeni sources said. They established new trenches and bunkers to avoid being targeted by the U.S., but the latest U.S. campaign has targeted the newly established sites and forced the Houthi leadership into hiding, the sources told Reuters. The leaders have switched off or discarded their mobile phones to avoid detection, cutting off communications. The only top leader to appear publicly recently was Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of the militia's Supreme Revolutionary Committee, who was seen - in a video circulated on social media - disguised as a civilian on a bus two days ago, before delivering a speech in Sanaa's Sabeen Square. On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the resumption of airstrikes on Gaza and the Houthis declared they would expand their targets in Israel in the coming hours and days unless the "aggression" against Gaza stops. The group's military spokesman has said without providing evidence that it had launched attacks against the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea. A U.S. official said on Sunday U.S. warplanes shot down 11 Houthi drones none of which came close to the Truman. U.S. forces also tracked a missile that splashed down off the coast of Yemen and was not deemed a threat, the official said.
