Bawazir and Kuwait’s crown prince discuss Yemen and bilateral ties in New York

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NEW YORK, United States — Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council said one of its members met Kuwait’s crown prince in New York to discuss relations between the two countries.

Abdullah al-Alimi Bawazir held the talks with Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The state news agency Saba reported the meeting.

Saba said the two men discussed the latest developments in Yemen and the region. It said they also looked at ways to widen cooperation between the two governments.

Kuwait’s state news agency, KUNA, gave a similar account. It said the crown prince received Bawazir, whom it described as the council’s deputy chairman.

Saba refers to him as a member of the council. The two agencies also differed on the day of the meeting.

Saba placed it on Thursday. KUNA said it took place on Wednesday.

Bawazir briefed the crown prince on political, security and military developments in Yemen, according to Saba. He described what he called an escalation by Iranian-backed Houthi militias.

That characterisation is the Yemeni government’s. The Houthis describe themselves as a national movement and deny acting as an Iranian proxy.

Saba said Bawazir set out the consequences he saw for Yemen and for the region. He thanked Kuwait for its positions in support of the Yemeni government and people, the agency said.

KUNA said the meeting also covered efforts to restore security and stability in Yemen. Neither agency reported any announcement of new Kuwaiti assistance.

The crown prince was representing Kuwait’s ruler, Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, at the assembly. KUNA said the talks were among several he held that day.

He also received Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, according to KUNA. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met him as well.

KUNA listed further talks with Rwandan Prime Minister Justin Nsengiyumva and Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg. The crown prince also met Jonathan Gray, president of the investment group Blackstone.

Kuwait’s foreign minister, Sheikh Jarrah Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, attended the session with Bawazir. So did Kuwait’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Tariq Mohammed al-Bannai.

Ambassador Mansour Ayad al-Otaibi was present, KUNA said. Major General Ahmed Abdulrahman al-Duai, who runs the crown prince’s office, attended.

Bawazir has held a run of meetings during the high-level week, which opened on Tuesday. Saba has reported his talks with British, Bahraini and UN officials since then.

He travelled to New York for the assembly’s 81st session. Yemen Monitor reported that he was scheduled to deliver Yemen’s address.

The Presidential Leadership Council was formed in April 2022, when former president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi transferred his powers to it. Bawazir has sat on the body since it was established.

He ran Hadi’s office before that. He took the post in November 2016.

Kuwait hosted United Nations-brokered talks between Yemen’s warring parties a decade ago. Those negotiations ran from April to August 2016 and closed without an agreement.

Shipping has taken up much of the Gulf diplomacy at this year’s assembly. KUNA reported that the Gulf Cooperation Council urged the restoration of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab at a joint ministerial meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Saba reported separately that 80 countries warned of the consequences of Houthi control of Bab al-Mandab for international shipping. Yemen Herald could not establish which countries joined that statement.

Yemen’s foreign minister, Afrah al-Zouba, called for the disarming of the Houthis at a UN meeting earlier in the week. She spoke in New York.

Kuwait Times reported that Saudi Arabia’s king criticised what he said was a Houthi attempt to target Makkah. The Houthis have not commented on that account.

Kuwait set out its own priorities at the session. KUNA said it pressed for Palestinian child protection and education, and placed artificial intelligence and human capital at the centre of its investment plans.

Bawazir told side events at the assembly that Yemenis were determined to restore their state and its institutions, Saba reported. He said they would confront terrorism in all its forms.

Saba also reported his talks with Oman’s foreign minister on developments in Yemen. It gave no date for that meeting.

Rashad al-Alimi, who chairs the council, said Yemen’s armed forces were capable of regaining the initiative and ending the Houthi threat, according to Saba. He set no timeframe.

Al-Zouba discussed the humanitarian response and food security in Yemen with the World Food Programme, Saba said.

The United Nations counts Yemen among the world’s largest humanitarian emergencies. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its March 2026 plan that more than 22 million people need assistance.

OCHA put the number of acutely food insecure at 18.3 million. It recorded 5.2 million internally displaced people.

More than 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, the office said. It classified 516,157 of those cases as severe.

The office sought 2.16 billion dollars this year to reach 12 million people.

Saba did not say how long the meeting in New York lasted. It published one photograph of the two men seated beneath the Yemeni and Kuwaiti flags.