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Pope Leo XIV Urges Peace in Yemen Amid Escalating Conflict
Confirmed
In Short: Pope Leo XIV called for an end to hostilities in Yemen and prayed for victims of a terrorist attack in Jordan, amid escalating conflict in the region.
Pope Leo XIV called for an end to hostilities in Yemen on Sunday, expressing concern over the humanitarian situation in the war-ravaged country and drawing particular attention to the besieged city of Taiz.
The pontiff also prayed for the victims of a terrorist attack against churchgoers in Jordan, as he addressed the faithful following the Angelus on Sunday, October 25.
Pope Leo XIV is asking for Yemenis to be allowed to live in peace, particularly as the humanitarian situation there grows more acute.
The city of Taiz has been under siege almost continually since the country’s civil war began in 2014, with only a brief and partial respite in 2024.
The pontiff also looked ahead to the gathering of Church leaders and religious leaders in Assisi on October 27, marking forty years since the meeting convened by Saint John Paul II.
Pope Leo XIV decided to stay at the Vatican on the advice of his doctors after lung cancer surgery earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad Al-Alimi announced the launch of military operations to retake all Yemeni territory controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis.
The Houthis have largely encircled Taiz, cutting it off from most supply routes and putting civilians at grave risk, according to U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk.
The conflict has escalated with Houthi forces reportedly wounding 13 people in Saudi Arabia in an attack involving ballistic missiles and drones launched from Yemen.
Saudi Arabia is planning an offensive against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis to reverse their seizure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, with Turkish drones and Pakistani military equipment already in use in Yemen.
More than 100,000 Yemeni troops could be mobilized, depending on the scale of the offensive.
The intensifying conflict could have “potentially negative spillovers for everybody, everywhere,” warned International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
What this adds
The Pope’s call for peace comes amid a complex geopolitical situation involving multiple countries and regional powers.
What's confirmed
- Pope Leo XIV called for an end to hostilities in Yemen on Sunday, expressing concern over the humanitarian situation in the war-ravaged country and drawing particular attention to the besieged city of Taiz.
- The pontiff also prayed for the victims of a terrorist attack against churchgoers in Jordan, as he addressed the faithful following the Angelus on Sunday, October 25.
- Pope Leo XIV is asking for Yemenis to be allowed to live in peace, particularly as the humanitarian situation there grows more acute.
- The city of Taiz has been under siege almost continually since the country’s civil war began in 2014, with only a brief and partial respite in 2024.
- The pontiff also looked ahead to the gathering of Church leaders and religious leaders in Assisi on October 27, marking forty years since the meeting convened by Saint John Paul II.
- Pope Leo XIV decided to stay at the Vatican on the advice of his doctors after lung cancer surgery earlier this month.
- Meanwhile, Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad Al-Alimi announced the launch of military operations to retake all Yemeni territory controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis.
- The Houthis have largely encircled Taiz, cutting it off from most supply routes and putting civilians at grave risk, according to U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk.
- The conflict has escalated with Houthi forces reportedly wounding 13 people in Saudi Arabia in an attack involving ballistic missiles and drones launched from Yemen.
- Saudi Arabia is planning an offensive against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis to reverse their seizure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, with Turkish drones and Pakistani military equipment already in use in Yemen.
- More than 100,000 Yemeni troops could be mobilized, depending on the scale of the offensive.
- The intensifying conflict could have “potentially negative spillovers for everybody, everywhere,” warned International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
What's still developing
- King Abdullah II of Jordan said authorities would “confront the terrorist act that targeted Karak with the harshest penalties.” “Let us continue to pray together for peace,” the pontiff also said Sunday, inviting all persons of good will to remember especially this week’s gathering in Assisi to mark Saint John Paul II’s 1986 Meeting of Prayer for Peace.
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- Riyadh, Sep 16: Saudi Arabia said its air defences intercepted and destroyed a drone south of Mecca before it could enter the holy city’s restricted airspace, as tensions with Yemen’s Houthi group continued to escalate.
- Since the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February, Tehran has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, while its Houthi allies in Yemen have subsequently done the same in the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
- The minister further demanded “the return of conditions in the Strait of Hormuz to what they were before February 28, without imposing any fees or taxes.” “The kingdom rejects any party’s use of these vital passages as a tool for pressure, threat, or harm to the interests of states, in a manner consistent with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions,” he said.
- New Delhi, Oct 14: A missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi movement struck a building belonging to Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Aramco in the eastern city of Dhahran overnight, escalating the confrontation between the Iran-backed group and the Saudi-led coalition, the BBC reported.
- Houthis, Saudi-led forces claim victories as Yemen fighting rages on Forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government have launched an operation to capture a strategic mountainous district from the Houthis as part of a wider push to retake the Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
- “The armed forces have secured strategic hills overlooking the al-Mansoura area, amidst a mass retreat by the Houthi militia,” it said, citing a military source.
- Najeeb Ghallab, undersecretary at Yemen’s Information Ministry, told Arab News that despite the UN-brokered truce that took effect in April 2022, the Houthis had continued expanding militarily while rejecting peace efforts and calls for deescalation.
- RIYADH — The Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi militia toward Riyadh at dawn on Saturday, Sept. 19, the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen said.
- Al-Maliki said the attack represented a continued escalation by the Houthis and accused the group of deliberately and systematically targeting civilians and civilian objects in Riyadh, a city with more than 8 million citizens and residents.
- Yemen's government said the missile strike killed recruits to its internal security forces ( ) More than 70 security personnel were killed in a Houthi missile strike on a camp in Yemen's central province of Shabwa on Monday, local authorities say.