The UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs has called for more international pressure on Yemen's Houthi rebels after a drone attack on government troops on Thursday that killed three soldiers and wounded high-ranking officers.
The "murderous drone attack tells you everything you need about the Houthis. Peace negotiations are a tactic to them, not a commitment," Dr Anwar Gargash tweeted.
"464 ceasefire violations, 36 killed & 318 wounded since Stockholm agreement. The international community must increase pressure," he said, blaming the Houthis for the slow progress of peace efforts.
Three soldiers were killed and four senior officers were among 20 others injured when the rebels detonated a drone above a military parade at Al Anad in base Lahj province. One of the wounded officers, intelligence chief Brig Mohammed Saleh Tammah, was recovering on Friday after undergoing an operation to remove shrapnel from his body, a source told The National.
The Yemeni government has ordered a high-level investigation into the attack, which ministers said was carried out with assistance from the rebels' ally Iran.
The UN special envoy for Yemen appealed for "restraint" after the attack and said he was alarmed by the "escalation of violence in Yemen".
In tweets posted overnight on Thursday, Martin Griffiths urged "all parties to the conflict to exercise restraint and refrain from further escalation" and to "create a conducive environment to maintain the positive momentum generated" at peace talks in Sweden last month.
The attack came a day after Mr Griffiths told the UN security Council that a three-week-old ceasefire agreement for Hodeidah province and its ports was largely holding, despite repeated rebel violations reported by the government and the Arab Coalition.
The ceasefire calls for the rebels to first withdraw from Hodeidah's three ports through which the bulk of Yemen's humanitarian and food shipments arrive, and for forces from both sides to then pull out of the city and cease fighting in the surrounding province. A team of UN monitors arrived in the city on December 23 but there has been no confirmed progress in implementing the ceasefire.
The pro-government Al Amalikah Brigades reported another rebel attack south of Hoideidah on Thursday.
Captain Fadel Hudyan, a commander in the Amalikah 12th Brigade, said the rebels had attempted to break into the Jabalia area in Tuhaiyta district but were repelled.
"The Houthi militia have launched many attempts to take over Al Jabalia in a bid to cut the main supply route in the area, but all the attempts were doomed to failure," Capt Hudyan told The National.
Thursday's drone attack is likely to pose a setback to UN efforts to launch formal peace talks to end four years of devastating conflict that have left millions of Yemenis dependent on humanitarian aid to survive.
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Read more:
Mike Pompeo announces international summit on Middle East security and Iran's threat
UN Yemen envoy hints peace talks could be delayed
UAE says UN must hold Houthis to peace commitments in Yemen
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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.
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Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
Company name: Farmin
Date started: March 2019
Founder: Dr Ali Al Hammadi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: AgriTech
Initial investment: None to date
Partners/Incubators: UAE Space Agency/Krypto Labs
