Saudi-Led Coalition Seizes Another Yemen-Bound Fuel Ship
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The Saudi-led coalition has seized yet another Yemen-bound fuel tanker and refused to allow it to dock at the western Hudaydah port and offload its critically needed cargo in a new act of piracy against the besieged Yemeni nation.
In a tweet published on his Twitter page on Thursday, Essam al-Mutawakel, a spokesman for the Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC), announced that the Saudi-led alliance had seized the ship named Primorye, which was carrying thousands of tons of mazut.
The ship was seized and barred from reaching the port of Hudaydah, despite having undergone inspection in Djibouti and obtained appropriate permissions from the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism, according to a senior Yemeni energy official (UNIVM).
The development comes less than a week after the Riyadh-led coalition, which has been waging a destructive military war against Yemen since 2015, intercepted a vessel carrying thousands of tons of petrol and barred it from mooring at Hudaydah port after obtaining UN authorization in Djibouti.
The prime minister of Yemen's National Salvation Government has warned that ignoring warnings and approaching Yemeni coasts to harvest crude oil will result in a military response.
According to Abdulaziz bin Habtoor, the Saudi-led coalition and Saudi mercenaries have pillaged Yemen's crude oil and natural gas resources for the past seven years, pocketing earnings estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
“We would initially send out a security warning. We would take a firm military action in case they do not take heed of our cautions and sail towards Yemeni ports, either Aden, Hudaydah, al-Dhaba or al-Nashima.
“We have repeatedly expressed our desire to extend the truce agreement on the provision that the rights of civil servants and members of military and security forces are restored. We have clearly stated that we will not allow any party to take away Yemen's oil and gas without reaching an understanding with Sana'a,” Habtoor highlighted.
He emphasized that the Sana'a-based government exercises sovereignty over all Yemeni ports, and that Yemeni forces are closely monitoring them.
“Any company that tends to cross the red lines and illegally loads and transfers Yemeni oil and gas will be punished by Yemeni Armed Forces,” Habtoor pointed out.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and other Western states.
The objective was to reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional government in Yemen.
While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to meet any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.