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Newly-appointed French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, The United States and the United Kingdom launched strikes on Yemen
UPDATED: Macron is relying on Attal to rejuvenate his government, in part, with an appeal to a younger demographic of voters who have become disillusioned, notably ahead of crucial EU parliamentary elections in June.
The U.S. and British militaries bombed more than a dozen sites used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen on Thursday, in a massive retaliatory strike using warship- and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets, U.S. officials said.
The World reaction the United States and the United Kingdom launched a series of strikes on Yemen against the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels
France’s Young Mind Prime Minister
By Lara BULLENS (Amended)
Macron is relying on Attal to rejuvenate his government, in part, with an appeal to a younger demographic of voters who have become disillusioned, notably ahead of crucial EU parliamentary elections in June.
Gabriel Attal’s most pressing task will be to ensure that Macron’s unpopular government is in position to outperform the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen, who continues to gain ground on an anti-immigration, anti-Islam platform.
As elsewhere in Europe, France's far right has benefitted from a global cost-of-living crisis, immigration woes and simmering resentment towards a political class – and a president – seen as out of touch. Macron’s confidence rating among the public dropped another point in January to 27 percent, according to a monthly Elabe poll for “Les Echos” business newspaper.
The same day that Attal took office, a leading Macron ally warned that Europe risks becoming "ungovernable" as gains by far-right parties in EU elections threaten to weaken the fabric of European integration.
Confirming his choice of Attal in a post on X, Macron addressed the young outgoing education minister directly, saying he knows he can count on Attal’s “energy and commitment" to bring back the spirit of “excellence and audacity” from 2017, when the president first took office.
Under the French political system, the prime minister is the head of government, in charge of implementing policy and managing government ministers.
But some heavyweight government figures aren’t happy about the dazzling rise of a man known among fellow ministers as “young Gabriel”.
His combative stance runs contrary to that of his predecessor Élisabeth Borne, 62, whose austere demeanour was respected among colleagues but made her averse to rapid-fire soundbite politics. Borne stepped down on Monday after serving less than two years in office as France’s second female prime minister.
By coming into politics at such a young age, Attal has drawn inevitable comparisons to Macron himself, who became France’s youngest-ever president at the age of 39. The youngest previous prime minister was Laurent Fabius, named head of government by François Mitterand in 1984 at age 37.
French media have suggested that Attal could succeed Macron when he reaches the end of his second term in 2027. He has already proven to be one of the most ambitious ministers in government despite his relative inexperience.
A popular figure with a privileged background
It took Attal only a little over a decade to rise from an internship in the health ministry to the second-highest office in the French republic.
Born in the southern suburb of Clamart in 1989, Attal grew up in Paris with three younger sisters. His father, Yves Attal, was a successful film producer of Tunisian-Jewish descent who passed away in 2015. His mother, Marie de Couriss, also worked in the film industry and is from an Orthodox Christian family from Odesa.
Attal attended the École alsacienne, a private school in the heart of Paris, and later graduated from the prestigious Sciences Po university. At age 17 he joined the Socialist Party and supported its then presidential candidate, Ségolène Royal, in the 2007 presidential election.
Marisol Touraine, a former health minister under François Hollande and the mother of one of his classmates, offered Attal a job in 2012 that led to a full-time position in the ministry at the age of 23. While in that post, Attal also served as a local councillor in Vanves, a municipality in the southwest suburbs of Paris.
Attal was one of the first to leave the Socialist Party to join Macron’s nascent “En Marche!” movement in 2016 and was elected to the National Assembly (France’s lower house of parliament) one year later in 2017.
He became a deputy minister of education at 29, the youngest member of government ever under the post-war Fifth Republic. During the Covid-19 pandemic that took 166,176 lives in France, Attal was appointed government spokesperson by former PM Jean Castex and quickly became a household name.
While serving as a junior minister in the budget office between 2022 and 2023, Attal defended Macron’s hugely controversial pension reform bill. Then in July 2023, he was appointed education minister, one of the most high-profile and politically sensitive cabinet positions.
Tensions at French public schools have been rising in recent years, with cases of violence between students and teachers prompting intense national debate. Last month, a 12-year-old schoolgirl threatened a teacher with a kitchen knife at a school in northern France. In October, a radicalised Islamist student stabbed his former teacher to death. And in a case that shocked the nation and elicited an outpouring of grief, Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old history and geography professor, was attacked and beheaded by another radicalised student in a Paris suburb in October 2020.
US, British militaries launch massive retaliatory strike against Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen
By LOLITA C. BALDOR AND TARA COPP
The U.S. and British militaries bombed more than a dozen sites used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen on Thursday, in a massive retaliatory strike using warship- and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. Air Force’s Mideast command said it struck over 60 targets at 16 sites in Yemen, including “command-and-control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities and air defense radar systems.”
President Joe Biden said the strikes were meant to demonstrate that the U.S. and its allies “will not tolerate” the militant group’s ceaseless attacks on the Red Sea. And he said they only made the move after attempts at diplomatic negotiations and careful deliberation.
“These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea — including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history,” Biden said in a statement. He noted the attacks endangered U.S. personnel and civilian mariners and jeopardized trade, and he added, “I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”
Associated Press journalists in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, heard four explosions early Friday local time. Two residents of Hodieda, Amin Ali Saleh and Hani Ahmed, said they heard five strong explosions hitting the western port area of the city, which lies on the Red Sea and is the largest port city controlled by the Houthis. Eyewitnesses who spoke with the AP also said they saw strikes in Taiz and Dhamar, cities south of Sanaa.
The strikes marked the first U.S. military response to what has been a persistent campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. And the coordinated military assault comes just a week after the White House and a host of partner nations issued a final warning to the Houthis to cease the attacks or face potential military action. The officials described the strikes on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. Members of Congress were briefed earlier Thursday on the strike plans.
The warning appeared to have had at least some short-lived impact, as attacks stopped for several days. On Tuesday, however, the Houthi rebels fired their largest-ever barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea, with U.S. and British ships and American fighter jets responding by shooting down 18 drones, two cruise missiles and an anti-ship missile. And on Thursday, the Houthis fired an anti-ship ballistic missile into the Gulf of Aden, which was seen by a commercial ship but did not hit the ship.
In a call with reporters, senior administration and military officials said that after the Tuesday attacks, Biden convened his national security team and was presented with military options for a response. He then directed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who remains hospitalized with complications from prostate cancer surgery, to carry out the retaliatory strikes.
In a separate statement, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the Royal Air Force carried out targeted strikes against military facilities used by the Houthis. The Defense Ministry said four fighter jets based in Cyprus took part in the strikes.
Noting the militants have carried out a series of dangerous attacks on shipping, he added, “This cannot stand.” He said the U.K. took “limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defense, alongside the United States with non-operational support from the Netherlands, Canada and Bahrain against targets tied to these attacks, to degrade Houthi military capabilities and protect global shipping.”
The governments of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand and South Korea joined the U.S. and U.K. in issuing a statement saying that while the aim is to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea, the allies won’t hesitate to defend lives and protect commerce in the critical waterway.
World reacts to US, UK attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen
By AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
The United States and the United Kingdom have launched a series of strikes on Yemen against the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, who have been targeting international shipping in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, who support the Palestinian group Hamas, called Friday’s attacks “barbaric” and in a statement threatened that “all US, UK interests have become ‘legitimate targets’.”
The rebels – who control most parts of Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa – also promised to continue targeting Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea.
Tens of thousands of Yemenis gathered in several cities to condemn the US and British strikes and to reaffirm their support for Palestinians.
Yemen’s Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, blamed the Houthis for the UK and US strikes, saying the rebels bore responsibility for dragging Yemen into a conflict with its attacks in the Red Sea.
Here are some of the international reactions to the attack, which threatens to further inflame tensions in the region:
Iran
“The attacks are happening in an effort to extend the full support of the US and UK in approximately the past 100 days for the war crimes of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people and the besieged citizens of Gaza,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said: “These attacks are a clear violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and a breach of international laws.”
Saudi Arabia
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for restraint and “avoiding escalation” after the strikes and said it was monitoring the situation with “great concern”.
“The kingdom emphasises the importance of maintaining the security and stability of the Red Sea region as the freedom of navigation in it is an international demand,” it said.
Turkey
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the strikes and said the US and UK are “trying to turn the Red Sea into a sea of blood”.
“All of these acts are disproportionate use of force,” he said, adding, “Israel also resorts to this disproportionate use of force in Palestine.”
Jordan
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said: “The Israeli aggression on Gaza and its continued committing of war crimes against the Palestinian people and violating international law with impunity are responsible for the rising tensions witnessed in the region.”
The stability of the region and its security are closely tied, Safadi said, according to state media.
“The international community is at a humanitarian, moral, legal and security crossroads,” he added. “Either it shoulders its responsibilities and ends Israel’s arrogant aggression and protects civilians or allows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist ministers to drag us into a regional war that threatens world peace.”
Egypt
Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed “deep concern” over the escalation of military operations in the Red Sea and air strikes in Yemen.
A statement from the ministry called for “uniting” international and regional efforts to reduce instability in the region.
United Nations
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on all sides “not to escalate” the volatile situation in the Red Sea, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
“The Secretary General further calls on all parties involved not to escalate even more the situation in the interest of peace and stability in the Red Sea and the wider region.”
NATO
“These strikes were defensive and designed to preserve freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways. The [Houthi] attacks must end,” a spokesperson for the military alliance said.
“Houthi forces are supported, supplied and equipped by Iran, so Tehran has a special responsibility to rein in its proxies,” the spokesperson added.
NATO was not involved in the attack, but the US and UK are part of the alliance while two other NATO members, the Netherlands and Canada, provided support.
Hezbollah
The Lebanese group, which is an ally of Iran and the Houthis, said the US aggression confirms that Washington is in “full partnership” with Israel.
“The US is a full partner in the tragedies and massacres committed by the Zionist enemy in Gaza and the region,” a statement from the group said.
Hamas
Condemning the strikes, Hamas said in a statement that the US and UK governments will bear responsibility for their attacks’ impacts on the security of the region.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad
The Gaza-based Palestinian group said the escalation confirms that the US administration is “waging a war of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza”.
“We call on the people of the Arab and Islamic nation to take action in rejection of the aggression against Yemen, which rose up in defence of Gaza and the holy places of Muslims in Palestine.”
Russia
Russia said the strikes violate international law and wrongly take advantage of a United Nations Security Council resolution that had demanded the Houthis stop their attacks on shipping lanes.
“The US air strikes on Yemen are another example of the Anglo-Saxons’ perversion of UN Security Council resolutions,” said Maria Zakharova, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson.
Zakharova said the strikes showed a “complete disregard for international law” and were “escalating the situation in the region”.
France
France reaffirmed its condemnation of Houthi strikes on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, calling for an immediate stop to them.
“With those armed actions, the Houthis bear the extremely serious responsibility of the escalation in the region,” the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Germany
Germany’s Federal Foreign Office said the strikes were meant to prevent further attacks. “Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea,” the ministry posted on X.
Spain
Spain will not intervene militarily in the Red Sea region out of “a commitment to peace” and any country doing so will have to answer for its actions, Defence Minister Margarita Robles said.
Highlighting that Madrid is not judging other countries’ actions in the Red Sea, she said: “Every country has to give explanations for its actions. Spain will always be committed to peace and dialogue.”
Belgium
Belgium is working with its partners in the European Union and the United States to restore security in the Red Sea region and avoid any spillover, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said on X.
“The ongoing attacks by the Houthis are a real danger for the stability of the region and represent an escalation that benefits no one,” she wrote.
The Netherlands
“The US-British action is based on the right of self-defence, aims to protect free passage and is focused on de-escalation. The Netherlands, with its long history as a sea-faring country, places significant importance on the right of free passage and supports this targeted operation,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.
Denmark
Denmark fully supports the US and British strikes, according to a statement by Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
Oman
Oman denounced the military action from “friendly countries”, state media reported. Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said the attack went against his country’s advice and will only add fuel to an extremely dangerous situation.