Day: January 5, 2024

Yemen’s Houthi group on Thursday rejected a joint statement issued by 12 countries condemning Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, and vowed continued targetting of “Israel-linked commercial ships” in the waters.

The Houthi Spokesman Dhaifallah al-Shami said in a statement that it is “a moral failure and a miserable attempt to cover up the crimes of Israel,” considering “America and Western countries are supporting Israel in committing more genocides against the Palestinian people.”

He stressed that the armed group would continue attacking what it called “Israel-linked commercial ships” until Israel ends the conflict and siege on the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip.

On Wednesday, the governments of Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Britain and the United States issued a joint statement, condemning Houthi attacks against commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea, and calling for the immediate end of the attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews.

“The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and the free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways,” the joint statement warned.

Since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on Oct. 7, 2023, the Houthi militia has escalated their attacks on Israel-linked ships, demanding that food and medicine aid be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip.

The Iran-backed Houthis control much of northern Yemen, including Sanaa and the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, where the group has held the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated cargo ship linked to an Israeli company, and its crew, since they were seized on Nov. 19, 2023.

The United States along with other Western countries formed last week a multinational maritime coalition to secure the ships transiting the Red Sea from the Houthi attacks.

The U.S. naval forces responded to a distress call from a merchant boat in the Red Sea reporting being under a Houthi attack, sinking three Houthi boats, and killing its 10 fighters.

A significant number of companies are already rerouting their ships around South Africa to reduce their risks, which takes an additional 10 days to journey on average and negatively impacts international trade and costs of freight, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Arsenio Dominguez said earlier this week.

The United States on Thursday added Azerbaijan to a watchlist on religious freedom, following fears for Christian heritage after the country seized Nagorno Karabakh, AFP reports.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, releasing an annual index of designations, maintained all 12 countries that had been on the previous year’s blacklist, including China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

In the sole change, Blinken added Azerbaijan to a watchlist, meaning it will join the blacklist, which carries potential sanctions, without improvements.

In a recent recommendation to the State Department, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom pointed to concerns for the preservation of Christian religious sites in Nagorno-Karabakh, where virtually the entire population of 100,000 ethnic Armenians has fled to Armenia.

The commission also voiced alarm over regulations on all religious practice in the Shiite Muslim-majority but largely secular country under strongman President Ilham Aliyev, including a requirement that all religious groups be registered and their literature approved by an official body.

Blinken in a statement noted that “significant violations of religious freedom also occur in countries that are not designated.”

“Governments must end abuses such as attacks on members of religious minority communities and their places of worship,” he said.

The “countries of particular concern” on the blacklist are China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Besides Azerbaijan, countries on the watchlist are Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam.

‘Armenia still hinders opening of communication in South Caucasus’  AZƏRBAYCAN24

Preparations are underway for the participation of Azerbaijanis living in different countries of the world in the extraordinary presidential elections to be held on 7 February 2024, Azernews reports.

The United States on Thursday defended its diplomatic efforts in the South Caucasus saying that it will continue to pursue peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia regardless of statements from Moscow, TURAN’s Washington correspondent reports.

“Russia does not in any way prevent us from conducting the important diplomatic efforts we think…

The United States on Thursday added Azerbaijan to its Special Watchlist of countries that engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom and require close monitoring, a classification that potentially opens the countries to sanctions from the U.S. government, TURAN’s Washington DC correspondent reports.

Releasing his annual index of…