Leaders of UN and aid groups urge immediate release of 17 staffers being held by Yemen's rebels
The heads of six U.N. agencies and three international humanitarian organizations issued a joint appeal to Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the immediate release of 17 members of their staff who were recently detained along with many others also being held by the Iranian-backed group
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The heads of six U.N. agencies and three international humanitarian organizations issued a joint appeal Thursday to Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the immediate release of 17 members of their staff who were recently detained along with many others also being held by the Iranian-backed group.
Their appeal was echoed by a statement from several dozen nations and the European Union ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting on Yemen where U.N. special envoy Hans Grundberg said the Houthis were holding all those detained in the crackdown incommunicado.
The Houthis said Monday they had arrested members of an “American-Israeli spy network,” days after detaining the staffers from the U.N. and aid organizations.
Maj. Gen. Abdulhakim al-Khayewani, head of the Houthis’ intelligence agency, announced the arrests, saying the spy network had first operated out of the U.S. Embassy in the capital Sanaa. After it was closed in 2015 following the Houthi takeover of Sanaa and northern Yemen, he said, they continued “their subversive agenda under the cover of international and U.N. organizations.”
