Sources close to U.N. Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths say the Houthi rebel group that controls chunks of the country, including the capital Sanaa, may be willing to hand over control of the Red Sea port of Hodeida to a U.N. team to administer.

Arab media says that the Houthis are denying the claim.

Scattered fighting continued in and around Hodeida on Friday as the Saudi-led coalition and Yemeni forces loyal to the internationally-recognized government consolidated gains around the city and made small advances in several places.

Saudi-owned al Arabiya TV claimed the government of Abdrabbou Mansour Hadi now controls around 85 percent of Yemen. VOA could not independently confirm the claim.

Despite reports that the Iranian-backed Houthis are losing ground, the group’s leader, Abdel Malek al Houthi, claimed reinforcements are being brought in to bolster forces loyal to his group.

He thanked everyone who came from the provinces to help his forces, but said recruitment must take place through the defense and interior ministries and that men must be taken from the coastline itself.

Arab media report that the Saudi-led coalition has cut the road from Sanaa to Hodeida, whose port supplies the capital with the majority of its supplies. The Houthis deny the claim.

Veteran Saudi commentator Jamal Khashoggi said the Saudis are applying classic military strategy by cutting the road because Hodeida is “a major supply line to the Houthis. It is a major source of Yemeni revenue. Goods that come through the port, they tax it.”

Rights groups have warned that taking Hodeida will seriously exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, but Khashoggi suggested that the coalition will “avoid the city” because going in “could lead to what the Europeans and the Americans are worried about: a bloodbath.”

Khashoggi said the Houthis have serious problems on the battlefield in many parts of Yemen, since they are not widely liked.

Still, Adam Baron, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told VOA he is not optimistic the Houthis are ready to start negotiating with U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths.

“In general, I’d say the Houthis are willing to engage in negotiations if it’s in their own interests,” he said. “Let’s face it, when it comes to the substantive issues, there’s still a large gap between what the Houthis are willing to offer and what the Coalition is willing to accept, and vice versa.”

Yemen analyst Greg Johnsen, who works for the Arabia Foundation and has spent several years on the U.N. Security Council’s Yemen Panel of Experts, said the United Arab Emirates, which is leading forces in the battle for Hodeida, is being very methodical in its pursuit of the war:

“They’re trying to be as deliberate as possible and not just go in and try to push the Houthis completely out of the city of Hodeida,” he said. “But they’re taking it step by step.”

The first part was taking the airport.

“They’ve now done that,” he added. “They’re consolidating that. The second step has been cutting the road to Sana’a. They’re doing that, and then they’ll move on to the next step.”

Johnsen argues the UAE is “trying to slowly ratchet up military pressure on the Houthis … to force them to capitulate and agree to some of the terms of Griffiths.”

He said the Saudi coalition is trying “to make sure that ships can still offload and that aid is still coming in, not only to Hodeida, but to the rest of the country.”

Saudi coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al Maliki told journalists in Brussels on Friday that the coalition hopes to get the Houthis to the negotiating table.

He said coalition forces are hoping for a political solution to Hodeida, Sanaa, and the Houthis’ home region of Saada. A political solution, he said, is the best solution for the Yemeni people to end the conflict.

Maliki added countries that support the coalition have earmarked $1.5 billion for aid efforts in various regions of Yemen.
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United Nations aid agencies are ramping up humanitarian operations in Yemen’s port city of Hodeida as fighting between government and rebel forces for control of the port heats up putting hundreds of thousands of civilian lives at risk. 

Conditions have seriously deteriorated since government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition began the battle to wrest control of the rebel Houthi-held Port of Hodeida one week ago.  

The United Nations considers Yemen the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.  It has been trying to broker a truce between the warring parties with no success.

A spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke says aid agencies are deeply worried about the civilians caught in the middle of this conflict.  He notes even before the fighting began, conditions in Hodeida were some of the worst in the country.

“Twenty-five percent of children in Hodeida are suffering from acute malnutrition.  If malnutritional support from humanitarian partners is disrupted, it risks the lives of almost 100,000 children,” said Laerke. “Hodeida was also one of the epicenters of last year’s cholera outbreak, one of the worst in modern history.”

Last year, cholera cases in Yemen topped 1 million in the world’s worst outbreak of the disease.  A World Health Organization spokesman, Christian Lindemeier, tells VOA concerns are growing over a possible resurgence of this fatal disease.

“Monday, a major water pump was hit, leaving 10,000 households without water supplies and with increased risk to water borne diseases,” he said. “So, there is a fear that the situation might fuel another wave of cholera.”

Lindemeier says there are plans to vaccinate more than 800,000 people in Hodeida with oral cholera vaccination.

The port of Hodeida is a vital lifeline for people throughout Yemen.  It imports crucial humanitarian relief supplies and is the main entry point for commercial goods, including fuel, food, and medicines.  Putting this vital port out of commission would have dire humanitarian consequences.

The World Food Program reports so far it has been able to provide food to Yemen on a non-stop basis.  This week, it reports it imported enough food for 6 million people for one month.

WFP spokeswoman, Bettina Luescher, warns the situation for millions of people would become life-threatening if the port were no longer operational. 

“We are basically keeping the people of Yemen alive,” said Luescher. “Without the humanitarians, all of the humanitarian partners, the people of Yemen would die if the humanitarians were not on the ground.  So, we have been bringing food into Hodeida.  We are channeling it into other areas and we are always talking with all sides to make sure that humanitarian aid is going in.”

Another casualty of the war is the suspension of migrant returns from Yemen. The International Organization for Migration reports it has been forced to postpone its operation to help migrants stranded in Hodeida return home because of the fighting.  

Last year, the agency repatriated 2,860 migrants from Yemen—746 through Hodeida port.  The majority were Ethiopian migrants.  Others included migrants from Sri Lanka, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.  So far, this year, IOM has assisted more than 430 migrant returns.

 
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Syrian government forces kept up their pressure on the country’s strategic southwest Friday, using artillery and airstrikes and dropping barrel bombs that targeted rebel-held parts of the region, activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 12 barrel bombs hit the province of Daraa, in the first use of the rudimentary and non-discriminatory weapons there in over a year when a truce went into effect in the area. Rockets and artillery shells have also targeted northern and eastern Daraa, and there were reports of overnight airstrikes on Busr al-Harir, a northeast Daraa town where government troops are trying to isolate the rebels.

The government campaign in the southwestern Syrian region bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights comes despite U.S. warnings of “serious repercussions” for anyone violating a de-escalation agreement in place since last July. The de-escalation zone was negotiated by Russia, the Syrian government’s main ally, Washington and Jordan.

Rebel factions, meanwhile, said they responded with missiles at a government air base in the adjacent Sweida province.

The Observatory said 16 people have been killed in government strikes since Tuesday, including nine children. At least 12,000 people have been displaced by fighting in the area since, according to the war monitor.

The agreement has been unraveling in recent weeks as the Syrian government turned its attention southward, after seizing opposition-held areas near the capital, Damascus. Israel, meanwhile, has become more active in opposing Iran’s expansion in Syria, carrying out airstrikes against suspected Iranian targets in the area.

Iran is a major backer of President Bashar al-Assad, and its military advisers and allied militias such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, have been fighting alongside his troops.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Thursday that Washington was “deeply troubled” by the Syrian government operations in the area and called on Moscow to “restrain” its ally from further actions that risk broadening the conflict.

Southwestern Syria is a mix of government and rebel-controlled areas, with rebels controlling parts of Daraa city and areas along the border with Jordan and the occupied Golan Heights.

Russia and the Syrian government have been pressing for an agreement with the rebels in the area to restore government authority, including over the commercial crossing with Jordan that has been out of its control for years. Talks over extending the de-escalation zone have faltered, although Assad said last week that Moscow, the U.S. and Israel continued discussing a settlement in the area. 

Israel wants Iranian-backed militias out of the border area. Jordan wants to avoid a humanitarian crisis at its borders with the renewed violence and is eager to see the border crossing with Syria reopened. The U.N. estimates that 750,000 Syrians live in the region, which has been spared the devastation that hit other parts of Syria in the last three years. 

The Russian Ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, told the Lebanese al-Akhbar daily that Israel fears the presence of Hezbollah and Iran in the south.

“We say that the Syrian army, with support from the Russian troops, is regaining control of its territories and restoring the state authority there,” Zasypkin said. “There is no justification for Israel to carry out any action that would hamper fighting terrorism.”

U.S. airstrike

Meanwhile, highlighting the tension in the southern area, skirmishes late Thursday between a U.S.-backed rebel group and pro-government forces miles away were followed by a U.S. airstrike that left a Syrian soldier killed, Syrian media and a U.S. official said.

The U.S maintains a base in Tanf, miles east of Daraa province where the government has been striking rebel positions. 

A U.S. official said that during a patrol by the U.S.-backed fighters inside a de-confliction zone around the base, a small number of pro-government forces fired at them from outside of the zone. U.S. and aligned forces retreated, but the pro-government forces continued to fire, the official said.

A U.S. airstrike was later called in, in “self-defense,” said the official who wasn’t authorized to discuss the situation publicly and insisted on anonymity. The airstrike in the al-Halba area killed one soldier, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

The U.S. official said the airstrike was near the de-confliction zone around the base, where the U.S. trains Syrian fighters, and which was agreed to in a deal between the U.S. and Russia. The Syrian government and its Iranian allies want the U.S. to evacuate the base.
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An Iranian campaigner for women’s access to men’s sporting events in Iran says she is unimpressed by authorities allowing women into a Tehran stadium to watch a telecast of Iran’s latest World Cup match.

Iranian officials opened the gates of Tehran’s Azadi football stadium to women as well as men Wednesday for a live, big-screen broadcast of the Iranian men’s team facing Spain in Kazan, Russia. Thousands of people attended the screening of the first-round match, which Spain won 1-0.

Iran’s Islamist rulers, who took power in a 1979 revolution, have barred women from attending some men’s sporting events, especially football, since the early 1980s. Wednesday’s screening was the first time they have allowed women to watch a telecast of a men’s football match at Azadi stadium.

In comments sent to VOA Persian on Thursday, Brussels-based campaigner Darya Safai said she was happy for the women who enjoyed the broadcast. Iranian state news sites such as ISNA and Mehr posted dozens of photos of smiling female and male fans at the stadium, dressed in patriotic outfits, wearing face paint and holding Iranian flags and vuvuzelas.

But Safai said the telecast has “nothing to do” with attending an actual football match at Azadi stadium, which has a capacity of 78,000 and hosts matches of the Iranian men’s football league.

“It hurts to see the world considering that Iranian women watching the Iran-Spain game on a big screen is a major victory,” Safai said. “As long as women can’t buy tickets for and attend a real football game at Azadi stadium, which during real games is filled only with cheering men, this is not a victory, and we will continue our battle against this discrimination.”

Western news outlets highlighted the historic nature of Wednesday’s Azadi stadium telecast, with The Washington Post using the headline “For the first time since 1980, Iranian women allowed to watch World Cup in same stadium as men,” while a report in The Guardian was headlined “Iran’s female football supporters make history at World Cup stadium screening.”

An Iran-based Twitter account describing itself as a group of women’s activists “seeking to end discrimination and let women attend stadiums” posted and retweeted a series of messages welcoming the Azadi telecast, including one post that declared: “How much we fought to see this green field!”

Safai, who runs her own social media campaign with Twitter and Facebook accounts, said she believes such celebratory messages are counterproductive.

“They undermine our fight against this discrimination because people say: ‘Ah, but Iranian women can enter the stadiums, so what are you campaigning for?’ It takes away the pressure,” she said.

In the Thursday edition of VOA Persian’s Straight Talk call-in show, many callers from inside Iran expressed happiness about the Azadi telecast being open to women. One woman who identified herself as Sara from Shiraz criticized those who have downplayed the significance of the event. She said it was not insignificant or irrelevant that women were allowed inside the stadium, whose Farsi name “Azadi” means “freedom.”

Another caller who gave his name as Ali said he appreciated a tweet by Spanish World Cup team captain Sergio Ramos, who said after the Iran match that the Iranian women at Azadi stadium were, in his view, “the ones who won tonight.” Ali said he was unaware of Iranian celebrities making the same point.

Iranian women have been allowed to attend some men’s sporting events in recent months. Women were among the fans who watched the Iranian men’s national basketball team face Iraq in February in a FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifier at the Azadi indoor stadium, adjacent to the outdoor football arena. They were seated in a separate section from the male fans.

Safai dismissed the attendance of women at such events as public relations stunts by the Iranian government.

Afshar Sigarchi and Behrooz Samadbeygi of VOA’s Persian service contributed to this report.
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A brother of an Iranian Kurdish man sentenced to death for belonging to a Kurdish nationalist group says the dissident has told a lawyer that he has hours to live after being transferred back to death row.

Speaking exclusively to VOA Persian on Thursday, Amjad Hossein Panahi said his detained brother Ramin Hossein Panahi was moved to death row at a prison in the northwestern city of Sanandaj in the past day. Amjad Panahi, who is based in Germany, said Ramin met with defense lawyer Hossein Ahmadiniaz on Thursday and told the lawyer that he expected to be executed within hours. Amjad Panahi said he learned of the meeting from Ahmadiniaz who, he said, described it as the final one with Ramin.

Amjad Panahi said prison authorities told family members in Sanandaj that they intended to execute Ramin ahead of the first anniversary his arrest, June 23, 2017. VOA Persian could not independently verify that purported message from the prison.

Amjad Panahi also posted a video on his Twitter account Thursday, showing his parents speaking at their home and expressing despair about Ramin’s plight. In the video, verified by VOA Persian, the father said Iranian authorities recently took him to an unknown location and pressured him to make critical comments about his son Ramin as part of a video recording.

In the Twitter video, the father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, said he did not mean to malign his son. 

“I’m old and miserable and did not understand what was going on,” he said. “We are waiting for our son, please help us.” 

There was no immediate sign on the Internet of the purported second video that the father said the authorities had filmed.

Residents of Sanandaj sent VOA Persian images showing a heavier-than-usual security presence in the streets Wednesday and Thursday. Authorities at the city’s prison granted Ramin Panahi a reprieve from execution last month, taking him off death row after Iranian and international rights activists intensified a social media campaign for annulling his death sentence. But many of the activists said they feared Iran was delaying an execution until after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ended last week.

Arrested in 2017

Panahi was arrested in June last year for belonging to Kurdish nationalist group Komala and allegedly drawing a weapon against Iranian security forces who were carrying out a raid in the region. He was sentenced to death by a Revolutionary court in January.

Amjad Panahi said his detained brother’s lawyer Ahmadiniaz told him on Thursday that Ramin denied harming any members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Agnes Callamard, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, has expressed concern about allegations that Panahi did not receive a fair trial and that authorities mistreated and tortured him in detention.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian service. Michael Lipin reported from Washington.
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