• PLC said at a meeting in Riyadh that the Houthis are attempting to spark a war with international powers

Saeed Al-Batati

AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council cautioned the Houthis on Thursday against driving Yemen into a conflict with international powers over their Red Sea strikes, according to the official news agency SABA. 

The PLC said at a meeting in Riyadh that the Houthis are attempting to spark a war with international powers by intensifying their attacks on ships in the Red Sea, warning that any new conflict would exacerbate Yemen’s already dire humanitarian situation and accusing the Houthis of attempting to embroil the country in another war by exploiting Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. 

“In this context, the council held the Houthi militias entirely accountable for the implications and terrible consequences of their terrorist assaults on commercial ships, as well as for converting territorial waters into a theater for an international conflict,” SABA quoted the council as saying.

The PLC said that if the international community had helped the Yemeni government in its efforts to evict the Houthis from regions of Yemen under their control, the militia would not have presented a danger to international navigation traffic in the Red Sea.

The Houthis have seized a commercial ship and fired ballistic missiles and drones at commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea, threatening to close the crucial trade corridor to all Israel-bound and Israeli-operated ships.

The Houthis claim that the attacks were carried out to put pressure on Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza.

Separately, Yemen’s government and the Houthis have traded accusations for delaying long-awaited prisoner swap talks.

Following a previous round of discussions, both parties agreed to meet again this month in the Jordanian capital of Amman to explore reaching a fresh prisoner exchange agreement that might liberate hundreds of Yemeni captives, including well-known Houthi-held Yemeni politician Mohammed Qahtan. They also agreed to exchange visits to one other’s jails.

Majed Fadhail, a member of the government delegation, told Arab News on Thursday that the prisoner swap talks had been postponed “indefinitely” and accused the Houthis of refusing to attend the meeting without giving a reason, as well as refusing to allow Qahtan’s family to visit him or know his whereabouts.

The Houthis’ refusal to free Qahtan, who has been imprisoned since 2015, forced the Yemeni government to suspend negotiations with the militia last year.

“For the last eight years, they have refused to reveal his condition, allow his family to see him, or enable him to contact his family,” Fadhail said, adding that the Yemeni government would only allow the Houthis to visit prisons in the government-controlled Marib after they allow Qahtan to see his family.

However, the leader of the Houthis’ prisoner exchange committee, Abdulkader Al-Murtada, accused the Yemeni government on Thursday of hindering the next round of negotiations by refusing to follow previously negotiated UN-brokered pledges, presumably referring to prison visits.

“We have no problem participating in any round of discussions on the prisoners’ issue provided we get assurances from the UN that the prior accords that it backed would be implemented,” Al-Murtada said on social media platform X.