Aden // Yemen’s government on Sunday suspended direct peace talks with the Houthis and their allies after the rebels stormed a military camp in violation of a ceasefire.
The rebel attack on the Amaliqa brigade camp in Amran province late on Saturday had “torpedoed” the talks, foreign minister Abdelmalek Al Mekhlafi, the government’s top delegate at the negotiations in Kuwait, said in a tweet.
“The delegation of the republic of Yemen has suspended its participation in Kuwait talks because of the continued violations by rebels and their takeover of Al Amaliqa base,” Mr Al Mekhlafi said.
The suspension will last “until guarantees for compliance were provided”, he added.
The government and rebel delegations met face to face for the first time on Saturday in the UN-mediated talks that began on April 21 following a truce that took effect on April 10. The UN special envoy to Yemen had reported steady progress in the negotiations to end more than a year of fighting between the Iran-backed rebels, who are allied to forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition that includes the UAE.
The soldiers at the Amaliqa camp, north of the rebel-held capital Sanaa, had chosen to stay neutral in the conflict.
“The Houthi rebels tried to seize weapons from the brigade, and this is a new indication that they do not want peace,” said Abdullah Hizam, director of the Saba state news agency, who is in Kuwait with the government delegation.
The Houthis had no reason to attack the camp, and this, along with ceasefire violations in several provinces, had convinced the government negotiators that it would not be possible to continue talks while the war was continuing, Mr Hizam told The National.
“The government delegation has two main conditions to return to the peace talks. The first one is the implementation of the ceasefire in all provinces, including Taez, and the second is that the Houthis withdraw from the Amaliqa camp,” Mr Hizam said.
The Houthi delegation had not yet responded to the government’s suspension of talks, he said.
“We do not know when the peace talks will resume, but this depends on the rebels – whether they want a peaceful solution or not.”
The developments dealt a blow to the hopes of Yemenis for an end to the conflict that has killed more than 6,400 people, forced millions from their homes and created severe shortages of essential goods.
Ammar Awadh, 29, a Sanaa resident said the storming of the Amaliqa camp was a clear message that the Houthis were pursuing a military solution.
“The Saudi-led air strikes stopped targeting the Houthis, but the Houthis are still advancing on the ground – so, there is no sign of peaceful solution in Yemen,” he said.
The chaos created by the war has also allowed the Yemen-based branch of Al Qaeda and its rival ISIL to seize territory and launch attacks on government officials.
On Sunday, a car bombing targeting the police chief and the governor of Aden killed five of their guards and injured eight.
The bombing targeted a convoy in which governor Aidarous Al Zabidi and Brigadier Shalal Shaei were leaving after a meeting at the headquarters of the coalition forces in Aden, said police spokesman Abdul Rahman Al Naqeeb.
Both men were unharmed.
"The car tried to get close to the governor and chief of the police, but another car of the convoy blocked it and it exploded near the guards' car," Mr Al Naqeeb told The National.
It was the fourth attempt on Maj Gen Al Shaie’s life since December, and followed a car bombing at his home on Thursday in which two guards were injured.
There was no claim of responsibility for either attack but Brig Al Shaie said after Thursday’s bombing that Al Qaeda sleeper cells remained in the city despite an operation that drove the group’s fighters from Aden in late March.
That was followed last month by an offensive against Al Qaeda in several southern provinces. Last week pro-government fighters led by UAE and Saudi special forces forced the extremists from their stronghold Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* With reporting from Agence France-Presse
Red Joan
Director: Trevor Nunn
Starring: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Tereza Srbova
Rating: 3/5 stars
PROFILE OF CURE.FIT
Started: July 2016
Founders: Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori
Based: Bangalore, India
Sector: Health & wellness
Size: 500 employees
Investment: $250 million
Investors: Accel, Oaktree Capital (US); Chiratae Ventures, Epiq Capital, Innoven Capital, Kalaari Capital, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Piramal Group’s Anand Piramal, Pratithi Investment Trust, Ratan Tata (India); and Unilever Ventures (Unilever’s global venture capital arm)
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TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The currency conundrum
Russ Mould, investment director at online trading platform AJ Bell, says almost every major currency has challenges right now. “The US has a huge budget deficit, the euro faces political friction and poor growth, sterling is bogged down by Brexit, China’s renminbi is hit by debt fears while slowing Chinese growth is hurting commodity exporters like Australia and Canada.”
Most countries now actively want a weak currency to make their exports more competitive. “China seems happy to let the renminbi drift lower, the Swiss are still running quantitative easing at full tilt and central bankers everywhere are actively talking down their currencies or offering only limited support," says Mr Mould.
This is a race to the bottom, and everybody wants to be a winner.
Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
Shubh Mangal Saavdhan
Directed by: RS Prasanna
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
Zombieland: Double Tap
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Stars: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone
Four out of five stars
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
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