Martin Griffiths (C), the UN special envoy for Yemen, descends from his plane upon his arrival at Sanaa international airport on January 5, 2019. AFP
Martin Griffiths (C), the UN special envoy for Yemen, descends from his plane upon his arrival at Sanaa international airport on January 5, 2019. AFP
Martin Griffiths (C), the UN special envoy for Yemen, descends from his plane upon his arrival at Sanaa international airport on January 5, 2019. AFP
Martin Griffiths (C), the UN special envoy for Yemen, descends from his plane upon his arrival at Sanaa international airport on January 5, 2019. AFP

UN Yemen envoy to brief Security Council on Hodeidah truce


Mina Aldroubi
  • English
  • Arabic

UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths is expected to brief the Security Council on a fragile ceasefire in Hodeidah on Wednesday as government forces report an increase in Houthi attacks and the arrival of rebel reinforcements despite the truce. 
Mr Griffiths, who is currently in Saudi Arabia, is expected to meet with Yemeni President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi on Tuesday to discuss the next stage of the agreement, before heading to Geneva, a UN source told The National. 
Mr Hadi and many of his officials are based in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
UN-brokered peace talks in Sweden last month ended with an agreement on a Hodeidah ceasefire deal, which went into effect on December 18. Warring parties agreed to withdraw fighters from the area as part of the agreement.
Mr Griffiths held talks with Yemen's warring parties this week in an attempt to salvage the agreement. 
The UN envoy landed in the rebel-held capital of Sanaa on Saturday, where he held talks with Houthi officials regarding the redeployment of rebel and government forces in Hodeidah, before flying to Riyadh, a UN source told The National.
The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said the meetings discussed the "obstacles and breaches" to agreements brokered during talks in Sweden. 
The UN reported last week that the truce has "largely held" in the province but Yemen's government has accused the Houthis of endangering the deal.
Yemen's Foreign Minister, Khalid Al Yamani, said Houthi rebels are continuing to consolidate their forces in the port city in violation of the agreement. 
"We must devote our efforts to establish concrete steps to implement the Hodeidah agreement on the ground," he told diplomats in Riyadh. 
Mr Al Yamani stressed the importance of exerting pressure on the Houthis to comply with the resolutions of the deal and implement the provisions of the Stockholm Agreement.
He also said that Houthi violations of the agreement will influence the way the government engages in the next round of UN-backed negotiations. 
"The obstacles the deal is encountering will be reflected in the Yemeni government's position during the next round of consultation," Mr Al Yamani said.  
Askar Zael, Yemen's military attaché to Turkey and a member of the government's delegation to Sweden, told The National that the government is "cautious about the next round of talks and on the progress, the Houthis are making towards implementing the Stockholm deal." 
"Until this moment the rebels are sabotaging the UN's and General Patrick's efforts in Hodeidah," Mr Zael said.
Anwar Gargash, the UAE's Minister of Foreign Affairs, also expressed scepticism towards the Houthi's commitment to the peace deal.
"The developments in Hodeidah show that the Houthis have no intention of respecting their humanitarian and political commitments," Dr Gargash said on Twitter. 
The Arab coalition, Dr Gargash said, "monitors the rebel's attempts to manipulate and thwart the agreement."
He said such violations will not benefit the rebels and will impede progress on a political solution. The withdrawal of all forces from Hodeidah is a necessary pre-requisite for the next phase of Yemen's political process, he noted. 
The ceasefire deal calls for the deployment of international monitors in Hodeidah and the establishment of a Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC), chaired by retired Dutch General Patrick Cammaert, will oversee implementation of the accord. 
The government fears that coast guards in the port may remain loyal to the Houthis even after their withdrawal from the area.
The ceasefire accord is regarded as the most significant step towards ending the conflict that has raged in Yemen since 2015. Officials also hope it will ease a humanitarian crisis that has forced two-thirds of the population to depend on humanitarian aid.

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Read more:

Arab Coalition warns Houthis are not committed to Sweden peace deal

UN envoy Martin Griffiths returns to Yemen with Hodeidah truce in the balance

Yemen's Houthi rebels are undermining Hodeidah ceasefire, Security Council warned

UN envoy Martin Griffiths pushes to salvage peace deal in Hodeidah

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Match info

Newcastle United 1
Joselu (11')

Tottenham Hotspur 2
Vertonghen (8'), Alli (18')

BlacKkKlansman

Director: Spike Lee

Starring: John David Washington; Adam Driver 

Five stars

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
South Africa v India schedule

Tests: 1st Test Jan 5-9, Cape Town; 2nd Test Jan 13-17, Centurion; 3rd Test Jan 24-28, Johannesburg

ODIs: 1st ODI Feb 1, Durban; 2nd ODI Feb 4, Centurion; 3rd ODI Feb 7, Cape Town; 4th ODI Feb 10, Johannesburg; 5th ODI Feb 13, Port Elizabeth; 6th ODI Feb 16, Centurion

T20Is: 1st T20I Feb 18, Johannesburg; 2nd T20I Feb 21, Centurion; 3rd T20I Feb 24, Cape Town

LILO & STITCH

Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders

Director: Dean Fleischer Camp

Rating: 4.5/5

Test

Director: S Sashikanth

Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan

Star rating: 2/5

Profile of VoucherSkout

Date of launch: November 2016

Founder: David Tobias

Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers

Sector: Technology

Size: 18 employees

Stage: Embarking on a Series A round to raise $5 million in the first quarter of 2019 with a 20 per cent stake

Investors: Seed round was self-funded with “millions of dollars” 

If you go

The flights
Emirates (www.emirates.com) and Etihad (www.etihad.com) both fly direct to Bengaluru, with return fares from Dh 1240. From Bengaluru airport, Coorg is a five-hour drive by car.

The hotels
The Tamara (www.thetamara.com) is located inside a working coffee plantation and offers individual villas with sprawling views of the hills (tariff from Dh1,300, including taxes and breakfast).

When to go
Coorg is an all-year destination, with the peak season for travel extending from the cooler months between October and March.

Fourth Arab Economic and Social Development Summit

As he spoke, Mr Aboul Gheit repeatedly referred to the need to tackle issues affecting the welfare of people across the region both in terms of preventing conflict and in pushing development.
Lebanon is scheduled to host the fourth Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in January that will see regional leaders gather to tackle the challenges facing the Middle East. The last such summit was held in 2013. Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki told The National that the Beirut Summit “will be an opportunity for Arab leaders to discuss solely economic and social issues, the conference will not focus on political concerns such as Palestine, Syria or Libya". He added that its slogan will be “the individual is at the heart of development”, adding that it will focus on all elements of human capital.

Iraq negotiating over Iran sanctions impact
  • US sanctions on Iran’s energy industry and exports took effect on Monday, November 5.
  • Washington issued formal waivers to eight buyers of Iranian oil, allowing them to continue limited imports. Iraq did not receive a waiver.
  • Iraq’s government is cooperating with the US to contain Iranian influence in the country, and increased Iraqi oil production is helping to make up for Iranian crude that sanctions are blocking from markets, US officials say.
  • Iraq, the second-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumped last month at a record 4.78 million barrels a day, former Oil Minister Jabbar Al-Luaibi said on Oct. 20. Iraq exported 3.83 million barrels a day last month, according to tanker tracking and data from port agents.
  • Iraq has been working to restore production at its northern Kirkuk oil field. Kirkuk could add 200,000 barrels a day of oil to Iraq’s total output, Hook said.
  • The country stopped trucking Kirkuk oil to Iran about three weeks ago, in line with U.S. sanctions, according to four people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because they aren’t allowed to speak to media.
  • Oil exports from Iran, OPEC’s third-largest supplier, have slumped since President Donald Trump announced in May that he’d reimpose sanctions. Iran shipped about 1.76 million barrels a day in October out of 3.42 million in total production, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
  • Benchmark Brent crude fell 47 cents to $72.70 a barrel in London trading at 7:26 a.m. local time. U.S. West Texas Intermediate was 25 cents lower at $62.85 a barrel in New York. WTI held near the lowest level in seven months as concerns of a tightening market eased after the U.S. granted its waivers to buyers of Iranian crude.
Scores

Day 2

New Zealand 153 & 56-1
Pakistan 227

New Zealand trail by 18 runs with nine wickets remaining

Gulf Under 19s final

Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B

Specs

Engine: 51.5kW electric motor

Range: 400km

Power: 134bhp

Torque: 175Nm

Price: From Dh98,800

Available: Now

From Zero

Artist: Linkin Park

Label: Warner Records

Number of tracks: 11

Rating: 4/5

CREW
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Oppenheimer
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Results:

6.30pm: Handicap (Turf) | US$175,000 2,410m | Winner: Bin Battuta, Christophe Soumillon (jockey), Saeed bin Suroor (trainer)

7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas Trial Conditions (Dirt) | $100,000 1,400m | Winner: Al Hayette, Fabrice Veron, Ismail Mohammed

7.40pm: Handicap (T) $145,000 1,000m | Winner: Faatinah, Jim Crowley, David Hayes

8.15pm: Dubawi Stakes Group 3 (D) $200,000 1,200m | Winner: Raven’s Corner, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar

8.50pm: Singspiel Stakes Group 3 (T) $200,000 1,800m | Winner: Dream Castle, Christophe Soumillon, Saeed bin Suroor

9.25pm: Handicap (T) $175,000 1,400m​​​ | Winner: Another Batt, Connor Beasley, George Scott

Major honours

ARSENAL

  • FA Cup - 2005

BARCELONA

  • La Liga - 2013
  • Copa del Rey - 2012
  • Fifa Club World Cup - 2011

CHELSEA

  • Premier League - 2015, 2017
  • FA Cup - 2018
  • League Cup - 2015

SPAIN

  • World Cup - 2010
  • European Championship - 2008, 2012
Building boom turning to bust as Turkey's economy slows

Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage - hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle.

Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors.

The ambitious development has been hit by regional turmoil as well as the slump in the Turkish construction industry - a key sector - as the country's economy heads towards what could be a hard landing in an intensifying downturn.

After a long period of solid growth, Turkey's economy contracted 1.1 per cent in the third quarter, and many economists expect it will enter into recession this year.

The country has been hit by high inflation and a currency crisis in August. The lira lost 28 per cent of its value against the dollar in 2018 and markets are still unconvinced by the readiness of the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to tackle underlying economic issues.

The villas close to the town centre of Mudurnu in the Bolu region are intended to resemble European architecture and are part of the Sarot Group's Burj Al Babas project.

But the development of 732 villas and a shopping centre - which began in 2014 - is now in limbo as Sarot Group has sought bankruptcy protection.

It is one of hundreds of Turkish companies that have done so as they seek cover from creditors and to restructure their debts.