Al Mayadeen – January 23, 2025
Sanaa slams Trump’s order to designate Ansar Allah as 'terrorist'
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to reinstate the designation of Ansar Allah as a "foreign terrorist organization."
US President Donald Trump's executive order to reinstate the designation of Yemen's Ansar Allah movement as a "foreign terrorist organization" is a living example of American political instability, its strange contradictions, and its clear failure, pointed out the Yemeni Minister of Information in the Sanaa government, Hashem Sharafuddin.
"We are on the terrorism list, then we’re removed, then re-listed, then delisted again, only to be re-listed once more!" he said.
He added that "sometimes, the best response to American absurdities is to ignore them."
Sharafuddin asserted that the "criminal US regime, a partner in Israeli terrorism, has no right to label others as terrorists."
"This is nothing new, the Americans have already declared war on us, yet we stood strong, fought for justice, and defended our homeland and people," the Yemeni minister clarified, affirming that the Ansar Allah movement "will continue to focus on our mission, fighting for what we believe in."
Trump signs executive order to reinstate Ansar Allah designation
Trump has signed an executive order to reinstate the designation of Ansar Allah as a "foreign terrorist organization," the White House announced on Wednesday.
The designation, originally issued by Trump near the end of his first term, was revoked by former President Joe Biden in 2021. Biden's decision was driven by concerns from humanitarian organizations that the designation would force them to withdraw from Yemen, as they interact with the group, which controls significant territories, including the capital, Sanaa.
However, following the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, the Yemeni forces began targeting shipping vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in support of the Palestinian people and also declared US and British interests as "legitimate targets" following repeated aggressions on the country.
In response, the Biden administration last year reclassified the group as a "specially designated global terrorist" organization—a less restrictive designation that allowed humanitarian aid to continue flowing into Yemen.
The latest executive order by Trump seeks to reapply the more stringent "foreign terrorist organization" label. The order accuses Ansar Allah of carrying out numerous attacks on civilian infrastructure, including multiple attacks on civilian airports in Saudi Arabia," in addition to firing "more than 300 projectiles fired at Israel since October 2023."
The designation is expected to take several weeks to go into effect.
The White House statement emphasized that under Trump, US policy now focuses on working with regional partners to "eliminate" the capabilities and operations of Ansar Allah, "deprive them of resources, and thereby end their attacks on U.S. personnel and civilians, U.S. partners, and maritime shipping in the Red Sea."
Elsewhere, the statement also noted that Trump will direct the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to terminate relationships with entities that have made payments to Ansar Allah or opposed international efforts to counter the group.
Saudi Crown Prince pledges $600 billion in investments during call with Trump
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of the Arab kingdom, has told US President Donald Trump that his country is prepared to offer to Riyadh $600 billion in investments over the next four years.
Saudi Arabia’s state-run news agency SPA said on Thursday that the crown prince, known as MBS, made the pledge aimed at expanding the Arab country’s investments and trade with the United States during a congratulatory phone call with the new American president on Wednesday evening.
“His Royal Highness the Crown Prince affirmed the Kingdom's intention to broaden its investments and trade with the United States over the next four years, in the amount of $600 billion, and potentially beyond that” if opportunities arose, SPA added.
During the conversation, bin Salman expressed the kingdom's enthusiasm for capitalizing on partnership and investment opportunities arising from the anticipated reforms of the new administration, which he believed could lead to “unprecedented economic prosperity.”
The report, however, did not provide further details regarding the call or the specific nature of the reforms to which he was referring.
The two leaders, who have maintained a strong relationship since Trump’s first term, also discussed collaboration between Saudi Arabia and the US to purportedly promote peace and stability in West Asia and combat terrorism.
The MBS’s move could facilitate a return visit to Saudi Arabia by Trump, whose first overseas trip as president in 2017 was to the Arab kingdom. Trump mentioned his trip to Saudi Arabia earlier this week, noting that it followed Riyadh’s agreement to make significant investments in purchasing American goods, including weaponry.
Trump, for his part, “expressed his appreciation and thanks” to bin Salman for “congratulations, and affirmed his keenness to work with the Kingdom on all that benefits the interests of both countries,” SPA added.
The kingdom has been depending heavily on American military support that was markedly invigorated after March 2015, when Riyadh launched a war on neighboring Yemen. An estimated 150,000 people were killed as a result of the military onslaught.
The campaign also claimed the lives of more than 227,000 others, who lost their lives as a result of widespread destruction of the Arab Peninsula country’s healthcare infrastructure during Saudi military attacks and a simultaneous Riyadh-imposed siege on the country that spawned a famine.
Palestinian Information Center – January 23, 2025
The West Bank under Israeli military closure for 5th consecutive day
For the fifth consecutive day Thursday, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have been laying a siege on the occupied West Bank, erecting many military checkpoints at the entrances to cities, and closing most of its villages and towns.
This closure coincides with a large-scale Israeli aggression imposed on the city of Jenin and its camp in the northern West Bank, while estimates indicate that the Jenin operation is aimed at starting the implementation of the West Bank annexation plan, through launching brutal attacks by settlers’ gangs against the citizens and their property, lands, and sanctities.
Most of the towns and villages of the West Bank have been witnessing many incursions and suffocating security measures at the military barriers, which led to the disruption of citizens’ movement in occupied Jerusalem, Ramallah and Al-Bireh in central West Bank, in Jenin and its camp, Nablus and Tubas in the northern West Bank, and in the cities of Jericho and Al-Khalil in the southern West Bank.
Israeli strict military measures included the intensification of security procedures and inspections at military barriers, the installation of make-shift barriers, the establishment of sand berms, the closure of some military checkpoints and iron gates installed in the cities and towns of the West Bank, storming homes, and the imposition of fines on a number of owners of homes, vehicles and commercial shops, particularly in occupied Jerusalem.
According to local sources, the IOF usually conducts tight inspections of citizens’ identities and vehicles, hindering their movement, and badly affecting their daily lives, especially in moving to work and studying, and receiving basic services.
In Jenin, the IOF has been waging an aggression against the city of Jenin and its camp for the third consecutive day, killing so far, 12 people after the martyrdom of two young men in the town of Burqin, west of the city yesterday, and causing a tremendous destruction in the infrastructure.
The IOF imposed a tight siege on the Jenin camp, closed its entrances, and forced the people from Mahyoub Street and some of the camp’s neighborhoods, to leave their homes and forcibly leave the camp, through one road towards the western entrance to the camp, which is known as Wadi Barqin, as Israeli quadcopters kept flying in the camp’s sky, threatening citizens through loudspeakers and dumping leaflets.
Israeli troops installed eye and face recognition devices to identify people, forced West Bankers to pass through them, and arrested a number of young men.
The IOF also launched a large-scale arrest campaign in Jenin camp, which affected a large number of citizens, and tightened security measures at the military checkpoints erected at the entrances and exits of Jenin governorate.
https://english.palinfo.com/news/2025/01/23/332757/
Palestinian Information Center – January 22, 2025
The war is over, but the suffering continues
After 471 days of Israeli war of genocide and brutal killing, the Gaza war has come to an end, and the residents breathe a sigh of relief. However, the scenes of massive destruction in residential neighborhoods are shocking, but determination will overcome this dark reality. Citizens have pledged to rebuild it more beautifully and vibrantly, as they see the Gaza Strip as a heart and soul that they inhabit but does not inhabit them.
Israel has destroyed all manifestations of human life: mosques, schools, homes, roads, and infrastructure, turning it into an unlivable city, mistakenly believing it would break the Gazans’ will and determination, but it has faile
d.
Residents are shocked by the extent of the destruction, the horror of the devastation, and the brutality of the widespread death. Yet, hope rises within them, as what has happened is nothing in comparison to the most sacred cause in the world. They may wonder when the pain will end, when the suffering will cease, when the tents will be uprooted, and when reconstruction will begin. These are significant questions that indicate the war is over, but suffering is not yet.
Citizens have decided to stay and defy the odds, continuing life.
Citizen Muath Abu Mustafa Abu Bakr states that the occupation destroyed his home in the Al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Yunis, and he now lives in a tent across from it. He adds that the war has certainly ended, and death and killing have passed, but suffering continues, emphasizing that they have decided to live and confront it. He affirmed that those who have lived through the horrors of genocide will challenge suffering and pain, awaiting a new dawn that has begun to rise.
In the same neighborhood, citizens started preparing what is known as arches for prayers, after the occupation destroyed the Hassan al-Banna Mosque, one of thousands of mosques that have been demolished.
Young man Fahd Wadi, one of those responsible for the mosque, states that the occupation destroyed the mosques “to sever our connection to them, but it has failed and will continue to fail, as the entire land is filled with mosques.”
As for citizen Abir Al-Bayram, she confirmed that the end of the war for her does not mean the end of her suffering, as her sister Nahla is still among the war’s missing, whose number exceeds 11,000. She says her suffering will end when the fate of her missing sister is revealed.
The genocide that lasted 15 months during which Israel did what no one could imagine has left immense pain and suffering. However, renewed hope and strong will stand like a flood that extinguishes the fire of anguish.
