Patrick Wintour

Yemen needs its own two-state solution, the president of its Southern Transitional Council (STC) has said, warning that there is currently no prospect of dislodging the Iran-backed Houthis from power in the north.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Aidarous al-Zubaidi told the Guardian: “The best solution for Yemen and the best path to stability is the two-state solution, whether by referendum or agreement. The reality on the ground is that there are two states militarily and economically.”

Between 1967 and 1990 the Arab world’s poorest nation was divided in two, with the Yemen Arab Republic in the north and the communist People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen in the south. The two states reunited in 1990 but in 2014 Houthi rebels seized the capital, Sana’a, unleashing a catastrophic civil war that displaced more than 4.5 million people before a 2022 ceasefire.

In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign to prevent the rebels from overrunning the country’s south, while the Houthis have used drones and missiles to attack Saudi Arabia and have targeted vessels in the Red Sea. This year hundreds of civilians were killed in a two-month US bombing campaign against the Houthis.

Yemen remains divided between north and south but is still treated as a unitary state by the international community. Zubaidi said there was no prospect of removing the Houthis through bombing alone and little hope of a political settlement.

The Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas will address the United Nations general assembly shortly as the US weighs whether to try to stop Israeli annexation of the West Bank, despite opposing him.

The speech by the veteran 89-year-old comes as a slew of western nations recognise the state of Palestine.

Donald Trump’s administration adamantly rejected statehood and, in a highly unusual step, barred Abbas and his senior aides from traveling to New York for the gathering of world leaders.

The general assembly overwhelmingly voted to let Abbas address the world body with a video message. We will be covering his speech here.

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to allow a Palestinian state and far-right members of his cabinet have threatened to annex the West Bank in a bid to kill any prospect of true independence. The Israeli PM will address the general assembly tomorrow.

In other developments:

• Yemen’s President of the Presidential Leadership Council, Mohammed Al-Alimi, will address the general assembly after Abbas. The Saudi-backed PLC hold power in the south of the country but the Iran-backed Houthis control much of Yemen and are now locked in conflict with Israel.

• Activists in a flotilla seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza said Wednesday that some of their boats were attacked by drones. The Global Sumud Flotilla said that “at least 13 explosions” were heard, while drones or aircraft dropped “unidentified objects” on at least 10 boats. No casualties were reported but there was damage to the vessels.

• Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is meeting Donald Trump at the White House. The Turkish president has been one of the world’s most vocal critics of Israel for its operations in Gaza. Colleagues on our US blog will be covering their talks.