First commercial flight in six years takes off from Yemen's Sana’a airport
Sanaa, May 16: The first commercial flight in six years took off from Yemen's rebel-held capital on Monday, officials said, part of a fragile truce in the county's grinding civil war.
The Yemen Airways flight, with 151 passengers on board, was bound for Jordan's capital of Amman, according to media outlets run by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Earlier, the plane had arrived in Sanaa from the southern port city of Aden to pick up the passengers. On touchdown, it was welcomed by a ceremonial water salute, according to a video posted online by the national carrier.
The Houthi media office said a return flight was expected back in Sanaa from Amman later Monday.
For Wednesday, Yemen Airways announced another flight from Sanaa to Amman and a return one to the Yemeni capital.
The flight is part of the U.N.-brokered, 60-day truce agreement that the internationally recognised government and the Houthi rebels struck last month.
The truce, which went into effect on April 2, is the first nationwide cease-fire in Yemen in six years.
The truce accord calls for two commercial flights a week to and from Sanaa to Jordan and Egypt.
The Houthi-held Sanaa is blockaded by the Saudi-led coalition, which backs the internationally recognised government.
The closure of the airport has inflicted major economic and humanitarian damage thousands of people had lost their jobs as businesses providing services closed down or suffered heavy losses.
Before the blockade, the Sanaa airport had an estimated of 6,000 passengers a day, and more than 2 million passengers every year, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, an international charity working in Yemen.
The U.N. envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, hailed what he described as constructive cooperation of the Yemeni government.
This should be a moment of coming together to do more, to start repairing what the war has broken, he said in a statement.
He urged both parties to implement all truce commitments and move towards resuming a political process to sustainably end the conflict.
The flight was initially due to take off on April 2 but a dispute over passports issued by the Houthis had delayed the departure date. This time, the internationally recognized government allowed passengers with Houthi-issued documents to board the flight.
The government-run SABA news agency said last week that new Yemeni passports would be issued in Jordan for those arriving with Houthi-issued travel documents.
Erin Hutchinson, Yemen director at the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the take-off of the first flight was a stepping stone towards a lasting peace for Yemen.
The long overdue reopening of the airport was one of the major objectives of the truce," she said, urging warring parties to work towards implementing other elements of the deal, including reopening of roads around Taiz and other provinces.
Taiz, which remains partially held by the forces fighting on behalf of the government, has been blockaded by the Houthis since 2016.
The U.N. envoy met last month with the government delegation to prepare for meetings on reopening roads in Taiz and other provinces. The Houthis have yet to name their delegation to the road-reopening meeting, raising concerns about their commitment to lifting the blockade.
A Houthi spokesman did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
The truce also included allowing 18 vessels carrying fuel into the Red Sea port of Hodeida, which is controlled by the Houthis, over a two-month period.
The cease-fire came amid concerted international and regional efforts to find a settlement to the conflict that has devastated the Arab world's poorest country and pushed it to the brink of famine.
Yemen's civil war erupted in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and forced the government into exile.
The Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try restore the government to power.
Despite daily violations reported by both sides, major ground and air clashes have subsided and the rebels have stopped their cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, another pillar of the anti-Houthi coalition.
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India & Israel elevate ties to special strategic partnership, vow to soon conclude free trade deal
Jerusalem (PTI): India and Israel on Thursday elevated their "time-tested" relationship to a special strategic partnership and agreed to soon firm up a "mutually beneficial" free trade deal even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly backed the Gaza peace initiative, asserting that humanity must never become a victim of conflict.
Following talks between Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, the two sides inked a plethora of agreements to expand cooperation in areas of trade, agriculture, energy, cyberspace and digital payment.
India and Israel also vowed to expand their already close defence partnership by working towards joint development and joint production of military hardware under the framework of the transfer of technologies.
In his media statement, Modi said India's security interest is linked to peace and stability in the Middle East, adding that New Delhi fully supports the Gaza Peace Initiative.
"India's stance is clear: humanity must never become a victim of conflict. A path to peace has been created through the Gaza Peace Plan. India has fully supported these efforts," he said.
"In the future as well, we will continue dialogue and cooperation with all countries," he said.
PM Modi landed in Israel on Wednesday on a two-day visit. It is his second visit to Israel in nine years.
In his remarks, the prime minister said India and Israel have a united view that there is no place for terrorism in the world and both sides stand shoulder-to-shoulder in countering terrorism and its supporters.
"Our relationship is founded on the strong bedrock of deep trust, shared democratic values, and human sensitivities. Our bond has stood the test of every trial of time," he said.
"Today, we have taken the historic decision to elevate our time-tested partnership to the status of a 'Special Strategic Partnership'," he said.
The prime minister also announced the establishment of an India-Israel critical and emerging technologies partnership to impart a new momentum for cooperation in areas of artificial intelligence, quantum, and critical minerals. "I am pleased that an agreement has been reached for the use of UPI in Israel," he said.
The prime minister, referring to the threat of terrorism, said India and Israel will continue to confront the menace unitedly.
"India and Israel are completely clear that there is no place for terrorism in the world. In any form, in any expression, terrorism cannot be accepted," he said.
"We have stood shoulder-to-shoulder in opposing terrorism and its supporters, and we will continue to do so," he added.
India and Israel also discussed the implementation of the India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and cooperation under the framework of I2U2 (India-Israel-UAE-USA).
