Day: 29 July 2023

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates called today on the international community to press the Israeli occupation authorities to dismantle the organized and armed terrorist settler militias and to dry up their sources of funding. In a press statement, the Foreign Ministry warned of settler terrorism throughout the occupied West Bank, which is supported by the hard-right Israeli government and its various arms. ‘Armed settler militias are operating with the support and protection of the Israeli occupation army and of ministers in the Netanyahu government, who are publicly declaring this,’ the statement added. ‘This is a direct result of organized state terrorism.’ The Foreign Ministry called for placing the terrorist settler organizations and their elements, including hawkish ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, on the international terror lists.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Scores of Palestinians demonstrated this evening in the town of Tamra in 1948-occupied Palestine in protest of the failure of the Israeli police to put an end to crime in the Arab-majority communities in the country. During the protests, demonstrators raised banners that blamed the Israeli Police for criminality in the Arab sector and even collaboration with criminal gangs. They also raised pictures of victims of domestic crimes that took place over the last few months. Since the beginning of this year, 125 Palestinians have been killed in criminal incidents inside 1948-occupied Palestine , in an unprecedented increase in toll compared to 2022. Over 111 and 109 murders were documented in 2021, and 2022, respectively. Palestinian nationals of Israel accuse the Israeli police and government of discriminating against them and not doing enough to stop crime in their towns compared to Jewish towns. Several protests and calls by the Palestinians in 1948-occupied Palestine, who make up more than 20 percent of the Israeli population, on the government and police to fight the rise in crime in their towns have not yet yielded any significant results with less than a fifth of the crimes be resolved or criminals apprehended. Palestinians in today’s Israel are those who stayed in their land following the establishment of the occupying state of Israel in 1948 and their descendants. They make up about 20 percent of the country’s nine million people. By law, their rights are equal to those of Jewish citizens. But in practice they suffer discrimination in employment, housing, policing and other areas of life.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Yemeni wisdom was demonstrated by the Yemenis’ victory in ending the Safer crisis and rescuing the floating reservoir, which is about 4.8 nautical miles off the coast of Hodeida province and carries an estimated 1 million and 140,000 barrels of crude oil.

This comes more than eight years after the United States-United Arab Emirates Aggression Coalition countries procrastinated in allowing the export of crude oil or conducting maintenance of the vessel and unloading its cargo to avoid an imminent environmental disaster, on Yemen and the region in general.

The procedures for the offloading of the Safer to a replacement vessel, which followed repeated appeals and demands by the Sana’a national authorities to the United Nations to assume full responsibility for finding solutions to prevent oil spills or tank explosions, and to urgently maintain the vessel and unload the quantities on board to avoid the risks of contamination of the territorial waters in the Red Sea.

For eight years, the US-Saudi-UAE Aggression Coalition, which launched a internecine warfare against the Yemeni people since March 26, 2015, and its targeting of the country’s infrastructure and capabilities, has been stalling and preventing the arrival of United Nations technical teams to study the status of the Safar vessel and the potential environmental disaster threatening the countries bordering the Red Sea.

The aggression States not only blocked the arrival of experts and technical teams to conduct maintenance work on the vessel, but also deliberately delayed the handling of the crisis to disrupt Sana’a’s crude oil spill from the floating tank or its explosion.

The United States-Saudi Alliance’s obstruction was not limited to not only permitting the export of the quantities of oil in the floating reservoir, but its malice and criminality reached the threshold of preventing the supply of the ship with fuel oil, which is necessary for its operation and maintenance, to protect it from corrosion and damage.

Despite repeated calls from the United Nations, the international community and environmental organizations, the national authorities in Sana ‘a have assumed responsibility and have endeavoured with all means and possibilities to find solutions and remedies for the ship to avoid all threats to navigational activity and maritime safety.

Those persistent appeals and demands, the United Nations has been unable to deal positively with them in order to avoid the explosion of the floating reservoir and an environmental disaster whose effects and repercussions will be devastating to the region’s marine environment and the world whose international maritime corridor will be affected.

In order to avert the marine environmental disaster, the Government of Sana ‘a continued to send warning messages, repeated demands and continued calls, and expressed the hope that the international community, represented by the United Nations and the Security Council, will take urgent action and binding action, to avert an imminent disaster caused by any oil spill that could cost approximately $20 billion to clean up the marine environment according to international reports.

At that time, the United Nations was reluctant to make mirage promises, and, as usual, disavowed its responsibility as an umbrella for Member States under its roof, including Yemen, and bargained for the Safer crisis by acquitting the executioner and holding the victim responsible for the disaster.

Appeals and calls by the Sana’a authorities continued, but they received no response or interaction from the United Nations. The aggression states continued to obstruct the path of finding solutions to the Safer crisis, whether unloading the amount of crude oil or allowing the entry of technical teams to conduct maintenance of the vessel, this was motivated by outbidding and extortion, with the aim of holding the Sana’a party responsible in this aspect.

Sana’a has launched several initiatives on the Safer crisis to avert its catastrophic risk, and has been rejected by the Aggression Coalition and the hotel government, including President Salih al-Samad’s initiative early in 2017, which included giving the United Nations the role to allow the export of the ship’s oil stockpile and selling it for medicines to the Yemeni people, on May 1, 2019, the Supreme Political Member Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi called on the United Nations and the Security Council to establish a mechanism based on the sale of Yemeni crude oil from Safer in exchange for the supply and import of petroleum, diesel and domestic gas, and to return what is sold to Sana’a and Aden banks and allocate it for the payment of employees’ salaries.

The Revolutionary Leadership and the Supreme Political Council were interested in addressing Safer’s crisis and continued to follow the procedural and practical steps in order to make successful what had been agreed with the United Nations regarding the ship’s discharge as soon as possible in order to preserve the marine environment from the risk of pollution that might hinder navigation in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb and the region in general.

Arbitrary actions and aggressive steps have coincided with the aggression coalition’s seizure of oil and gas vessels and its continued obstruction of entry into the port of Hodeidah to unload its cargo in a clear intention to stifle the Yemeni people and cause successive economic and living crises.

The aggression coalition did not stop there, but went beyond what was even more egregious by targeting ports, destroying economic installations, killing and detaining fishermen and confiscating their boats, looting fish and marine neighbourhoods with unique coasts, islands and Yemen’s waters and dredging up coral reefs.

Despite the complexities and obstacles of the coalition of aggression on the Safer crisis, the national authorities in Sana ‘a have taken steps to avert and prevent an environmental disaster in Yemen and the region, and have set up a supervisory committee to implement the urgent maintenance agreement and the comprehensive assessment of the Safer floating reservoir, carry out a number of tasks and competencies in obtaining a copy of the documents delivered by Safer to the United Nations team and vice versa and accompanying the United Nations team in carrying out the work on the Safer Floating Reservoir, facilitating the arrival and mission of the United Nations Group of Experts and the National Team for the Implementation of the Agreement and overseeing compliance with the scope of the work of the Urgent Maintenance Agreement and the comprehensive evaluation.

On March 9, 2023, the United Nations announced the signing of an agreement to secure the purchase of a replacement “large crude oil tanker” to be used to unload more than 1 million barrels of oil from the rickety supertanker Safer, anchored off the coast of Yemen on the Red Sea.

This step coincided with the provision by the Government of Sana’a of exemptions for vessels working with the United Nations team to facilitate the implementation of the Safer floating reservoir rescue project in accordance with the directives of the President of the Supreme Political Council and stressing the need to adhere to the plan’s timetable and adopt the replacement ship’s ongoing maintenance programme.

With the arrival of the alternative vessel “Yemen” at the port of Hodeidah, Transport Minister Abdulwahab Al-Durra, at a press conference, saw its arrival as an achievement culminating in the efforts of the Salvation Government, which has played an active role in fulfilling its full commitments to end the years-long crisis of Safer and accompanied by media misinformation by aggression and its tools.

Minister Al-Durra stressed the need for periodic maintenance of this vessel so that the problem of the floating oil reservoir Safer is not repeated.

The Chairman of the Supervisory Committee for the Implementation of the Maintenance Agreement, Zaid Al-Weshali, referred at the Conference to the measures agreed upon in coordination with the United Nations to facilitate the rescue of the Safer reservoir before an environmental disaster in the Red Sea and Yemeni territorial waters.

He drew attention to the status of the reservoir and treatments taken in 2014 before the start of the aggression against Yemen, which was represented by a project to build land reservoirs. Approximately 30 per cent of the project was completed to replace the Safer floating reservoir. Noting that the project that Safer was implementing during that period was a reasonable option to save the vessel from potential risks and threats, he was interrupted and collapsed by the aggression against Yemen and the executing company’s departure.

And with the start of emptying the Safer tank, Yemenis look forward to eliminating the dangers to the marine environment in the Red Sea and overcoming the challenges of this protracted crisis, which has been a source of concern to the Yemeni people.

Source: Yemen News Agency

The aggression forces committed 49 violations of the ceasefire agreement in Hodeida province over the past 24 hours, an official at the operations room to monitor the violations said on Friday.

The official in the operations room told the Yemeni News Agency (Saba) that among the aggression forces violations were a raid by the spy warplanes on a cemetery, and the creation of combat fortifications in Hays.

He pointed out that the violations also included the hovering of a spy plane in a cemetery atmosphere, artillery shell on Hays, and 45 violations of various gunshots.

Source: Yemen News Agency

On this day, July 29, the US-Saudi-Emirati aggression coalition launched dozens of air raids on various governorates, targeting citizens, their property, and infrastructure.

On July 29, 2015, the aggression coalition warplanes launched four raids on two cars belonging to citizens in Jawaan area of Haidan district, Sa’ada governorate.

On this day in the year 2016, five citizens were killed as a result of a raid by the aggression coalition’s fighter jets on the house of a citizen in Kushar district of Hajjah governorate.

The aggression coalition warplanes targeted a mosque in Khub Washa`f district of Jawf governorate, which led to its destruction, and launched a raid on the house of Sheikh Muhammad Ayed Al-Aqibi in the Al-Matoon district, which led to its complete destruction and damage to a number of neighboring houses.

The hostile aircraft also launched raids on the Al-Masloub district, while the mercenaries bombed with artillery Al-Ghail district, in the governorate, and Al-Hazm area in Harib Al-Qarameesh district in Marib governorate, and they targeted separate areas in Nehm district in Sana’a governorate with various weapons.

On July 29, 2017, the aggression warplanes launched three raids on the Mustaba district in Hajjah governorate, one of which targeted a citizen’s house in Abi Dawar area, while two airstrikes targeted Mashar area.

In the Sa’ada governorate, the hostile aircraft launched ten raids on separate places in Sheda district, five raids on Al-Dhahir district, two raids on Kahlan in the vicinity of the city of Sa’ada, and two raids on Burkan area in Razih district, all of which caused severe damage to the homes and property of citizens.

Al-Sheikh and Al-Baqa’a areas of Munabbeh district were subjected to intense Saudi missile and artillery bombardment, targeting citizens’ farms and roads.

The aggression warplanes also launched two raids on September 21 Park in Maeen district in the capital Sanaa, which caused severe damage to citizens’ homes and public and private property.

The aggression coalition aircraft launched a raid on the Nihm district in Sanaa governorate, a raid on Al-Matma district in Jawf governorate, a raid on Al-Saq area in Asilan district of Shabwa governorate, and six raids on Serwah district in Marib governorate.

On this day in the year 2018, a citizen was killed and others, including women and children, were injured when the aggression mercenaries bombed the homes of citizens in the countryside of Al-Tuhita in Hodeida governorate, and they also kidnapped a group of women in Al-Tuhita and took them to an unknown destination.

In Hodeida, the aggression warplanes launched a raid on the entrance to Al-Kateeb resort in Al-Mina district, four raids on Al-Arj area in Bajel district, and more than 15 raids on Al-Durayhimi district, and targeted a telecommunications network in Al-Jabbana area in Al-Hali district.

The hostile aircraft launched three raids on Nata` district in Bayda governorate, two raids on Sanhan district, and two raids on Al-Hanshat area in the Nihm district of Sana’a governorate, which caused damage to farms and citizens’ property.

The aggression coalition air force targeted, with six raids, the Baqim district in Sa’ada governorate, while residential areas in the districts of Sheda, Razih, Baqim and Monabbeh were subjected to Saudi missile and artillery bombardment, which caused great damage, in addition to three raids on Al-Tala’a in Najran.

On July 29, 2019, 15 citizens, including four children, were killed and 26 others, including 14 children, were injured when the Saudi army targeted Al Thabet market in the border district of Qataber in Sa’ada governorate, and a citizen was also killed by Saudi border guard fire in the border district of Sheda.

The aggression mercenaries bombed with artillery commercial facilities of several merchants in the Kilo 16 area in Al-Durayhimi district of Hodeida governorate, and the aggression warplanes launched a raid on the house of the citizen Ali Hussein Sirri in the city of Houth in Amran governorate.

On this day in the year 2020, the mercenaries bombed with more than 12 artillery shells, Katyusha rockets and machine guns separate villages on the outskirts of the city of al-Durayhimi, and they created combat fortifications to the west of the city, and they bombed with more than 17 mortar shells separate places in the districts of Hays and al-Tuhaita.

On July 29, 2021, two citizens were injured by Saudi artillery shelling on Al-Raqo area in the border district of Munabbeh, Sa’ada governorate.

A child was injured by mercenaries’ fire in Al-Mughris area in the Al-Tuhaita district of Hodeida governorate, and the spy planes launched five raids on Al-Jah areas in Beit Al-Faqih district and Al-Faza in the Al-Tuhaita district.

The mercenaries created combat fortifications in Al-Jabaliya in Al-Tuhaita, and bombed separate areas in the governorate with 98 artillery shells and various bullets.

The hostile aircraft launched a raid on Al-Dhahra area in Khub Washa`f district in Jawf governorate, 22 raids on Rahba and Jabal Murad districts, and two raids on Serwah district in the Marib governorate.

On this day in the year 2022, the armed reconnaissance aircraft launched four raids on the west of Hays in Hodeida governorate and Maqbana in Taiz governorate, while the mercenaries opened fire on many areas in the governorates of Marib, Taiz, Hajjah, Sa’ada, Dhalea, Hodeida, and the border fronts.

The aggression’s mercenaries targeted, with intense artillery shelling, the eastern Balq and Al-Rawdah in Marib governorate, Haradh district in Hajjah governorate, Hajar Battar in Dhalea governorate, Al-Jabaliya in Al-Tuhaita district, Northeast, North and West Hays district in Hodeida governorate, Maqbana in Taiz governorate, and Al-Amud area in Jarah valley in Jizan.

Source: Yemen News Agency

Charleroi airport in Belgium has cancelled 96 flights due to a strike by Ryanair pilots in Belgium.

The industrial action will affect 17,000 passengers due to leave or land in the southern city, around 28 percent of the expected number of travelers, the airport’s management said.

Pilots say the low-cost Irish airline is failing to honor a collective convention that sets time off work in exchange for salary cuts agreed in 2020 during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, which decimated the industry.

The pilots’ union said the company was failing to respect Belgian law and was prospering thanks to “social dumping” that creates unfair competition for other airlines that abide by the rules.

Source: Qatar News Agency