Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba discusses Red Sea security with Tunisia’s Mohamed Ali Nafti
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s foreign minister discussed the Houthi offensive and Red Sea security with her Tunisian counterpart in a phone call on Monday, the state news agency Saba said.
Afrah al-Zouba and Mohamed Ali Nafti, Tunisia’s minister of foreign affairs, migration and Tunisians abroad, reviewed developments in Yemen and bilateral relations, according to the agency.
Al-Zouba said the government’s priorities were protecting citizens, keeping state institutions running and extending sovereignty across the country’s territory.
She said Yemeni territory and coastline must not be used as a platform to threaten neighbouring countries or international shipping.
Al-Zouba described the Houthi escalation as backed by Iran. The Houthis deny acting on Tehran’s instructions.
Nafti said Tunisia supported Yemen’s security, stability, unity and territorial integrity, Saba reported.
He said Tunisia wanted to develop cooperation between the two countries and to continue consultations in Arab and international forums.
Al-Zouba praised Tunisia’s work during its presidency of the 166th ministerial session of the Council of the League of Arab States.
Saba is the only published account of the call. Neither Tunisia’s foreign ministry nor any independent outlet has published a confirmation of it.
The call came as Houthi forces widened their advance along Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
The group took the port of Mokha on Sept. 10 and Perim Island, inside the Bab al-Mandab strait, the following day.
It took the Greater and Lesser Hanish islands on Monday after government-allied troops withdrew, government and Houthi officials told The Associated Press.
Bab al-Mandab links the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and carries cargo bound for the Suez Canal.
The strait has drawn closer attention since the Strait of Hormuz came under United States and Iranian blockades during the Iran war.
Sultan al-Arada, a member of the Presidential Leadership Council, called the collapse of government forces at Mokha and elsewhere on the west coast “painful and regrettable” in a televised interview aired late Saturday. He said the forces were regrouping.
Rashad al-Alimi, who chairs the council, described the losses as “incidental” on Sunday, in comments carried by Saba.
Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that recent Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden likely amount to war crimes in at least three cases.
The deadliest of those attacks was on the cargo ship Tihamah in the Bab al-Mandab strait on Aug. 11. At least four crew members and two Yemeni Coast Guard rescuers were killed, the organisation said, and at least 10 other people were injured.
Yemen’s Transport Ministry said the vessel was struck by three consecutive ballistic missiles. The Houthis said it carried Saudi military equipment. Human Rights Watch said it could not confirm the cargo.
The Houthis announced a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia on July 20, describing it as a response to what they called a Saudi sea and air blockade of Yemen.
The International Organisation for Migration said Tuesday that 93,864 people had been newly displaced across Yemen by fighting and flooding.
Jabal Habashy district in Taiz accounted for 18,840 of them, and al-Mudharibah district in Lahj for 16,464.
The government’s Human Rights Ministry said about 150 civilians have been killed and more than 200 wounded in fighting since Sept. 3.
Saudi Civil Defence issued alerts in six cities on Tuesday morning, among them Yanbu, the kingdom’s main Red Sea oil port, and later said the danger had passed.
Saudi authorities said late Monday that Houthi attacks on civilian areas had injured 13 people and damaged seven homes and two vehicles.
The United Nations estimates that more than 80,000 people were displaced in the past two weeks, including more than 2,000 who crossed by boat to Djibouti.
The United Nations humanitarian plan for Yemen published in March estimated that more than 22 million people needed assistance and that 18.3 million were acutely food insecure.
It counted 5.2 million people already displaced by the war and more than 2.2 million children under five who were acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely. The plan sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million people.
Al-Zouba took office on July 23, when a republican decree appointed her minister of foreign affairs and expatriates. She is the first woman to hold the post.
She had been minister of planning and international cooperation since February, and worked for more than 25 years in development and peacebuilding before entering government.
She served as first deputy secretary general of the National Dialogue Conference, the body set up to draft a new constitution after the removal of Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Since taking office she has held calls with counterparts in Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Germany and Japan, according to Saba.
She briefed European Union ambassadors in Riyadh last week on the Houthi push toward Bab al-Mandab, and asked the United Nations human rights chief to document Houthi violations.
Nafti has held several posts at Tunisia’s foreign ministry, among them secretary of state for Arab and Asian affairs.
Tunisia held the rotating presidency of the Arab League’s ministerial council session that met earlier this year.
The internationally recognised government holds the south and east of Yemen, including Aden, where the foreign ministry sits.
Sanaa has been under Houthi control since late 2014.
Saba gave no indication that the two ministers agreed any specific measure.
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