Salute to a hero
The body of First Cpl Abdullah Mohammed Ahmed Al Dahmani arrives at Al Bateen Airport in Abu Dhabi yesterday. Cpl Al Dahmani was killed fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen as part of Operation Restoring Hope.
The United Nations has appointed Briton Martin Griffiths as its next special envoy to Yemen.
Mr Griffiths is the executive director of the European Institute of Peace, whose website describes him a senior international mediator.
Sources in New York confirmed the appointment, Al Arabiya reported yesterday.
Mr Griffiths served in the office of UN Syria envoys Kofi Annan, Lakhdar Brahimi and Staffan de Mistura between 2012 and 2014.
On Monday, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he would step down as special envoy to Yemen at the end of next month. He had been in the position since April 2015.
News of Mr Griffiths’s appointment came as British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson hosted talks with UAE, Saudi and US ministers to discuss steps for a political resolution to the Yemen conflict.
Before the meeting, Mr Johnson tweeted that “a political settlement is the only long-term solution for Yemen”.
Also yesterday, the body of an Emirati serviceman killed in Yemen arrived at Al Bateen airport in Abu Dhabi.
The UAE is part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen on behalf of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi’s government.
The General Command of the UAE Armed Forces announced on Monday that 1st Corp Abdullah Mohammed Ahmed Dahmani had died fighting in the coalition’s Operation Restoring Hope.
Also on Monday, Yemen’s deputy interior minister, Ali Nasser Lakhsha’a, survived an attack by the Houthis on a military parade in the southwest province of Taez.
The Iran-backed rebels used a Katyusha rocket launcher to fire on the parade marking the start of a military training year at an elite forces camp in Al Ma’afer district.
Taez’s deputy governor, Abdulqawi Al Mikhlafi, also survived the attack, said Mohammed Maresh, a fixer for news outlets including Al Arabiya, who was at the parade.
Mohammed Al Qadasi, a cameraman for TV station Baliqees, was killed, while a former correspondent for Russia’s RT news channel was severely injured, Mr Maresh said. Seven others were also injured.
Separately, the Yemeni army, backed by UAE forces, launched a lightning offensive against Houthi pockets in areas either side of the border between Hodeidah and Taez provinces on Monday, Aseel Al Sakladi, media officer for the brigades involved, told The National.
The offensive, led by Maj Gen Abu Al Muharramy, commander of Al Amalikah brigades, liberated a string of villages, while many Houthis were killed, Mr Al Sakladi said.