Riyadh shuts down embassy in Sanaa

February 14, 2015

Riyadh, Feb 14: Saudi Arabia, Italy and Germany shut down their embassies in Yemen on Friday amid growing political uncertainty as Yemen’s top UN envoy warned that the Arab world's poorest nation is at a crossroads between civil war and disintegration.

“Due to the deteriorating security and political situation in the Yemeni capital, the Saudi government has suspended all embassy operations in Sanaa and evacuated all its staff, who have arrived safely in the Kingdom,” said the SPA.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement the ambassador and his staff were returning to Italy, and expressed hopes that UN mediation would create conditions permitting the embassy to reopen.

“The situation is anything but stable,” said German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli, calling the ouster of the government by the Shiite militiamen “unacceptable, dangerous and with consequences for the region”.

Gulf countries evacuated their embassies weeks ago.

The Saudi Embassy was also closed down for a short period in 2012 after Abdullah Al-Khaledi, a Saudi diplomat, was kidnapped on March 18, 2012. UN negotiations, headed by envoy Jamal Benomar, to resolve the deadlock have stalled.

“Today Yemen is at a crossroads,” Benomar told a UN Security Council briefing Thursday. “Either the country will descend into civil war and disintegration, or the country will find a way to put the transition back on track.”

The US, Britain and France have rushed to close their embassies over security fears, with US staff destroying top-secret documents and sensitive equipment before pulling out Wednesday. The Netherlands followed suit the next day.

The Houthis said Western powers had no reason to shut their embassies, insisting security was solid.

On Friday, Yemeni security officials said a suicide car bomber struck a police headquarters in the central city of Bayda, which was recently captured by Shiite rebels. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

Comments