Saudi coalition seizes two more Yemen-bound fuel vessels

Essam al-Mutawakil, a spokesman for the Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC), announced in a post published on his Twitter page that the Riyadh-led alliance did not give SUPER EMERALD and OCEAN AUTUMN tankers, which were carrying tens of thousands of tons of petrol each, the permission to dock at Yemen’s western port of Hudaydah and offload their shipments.

Mutawakil added that the vessels were impounded despite being inspected and cleared for the port call by the United Nations staff.

The latest incident brings to twelve the number of fuel ships detained by the coalition despite having undergone inspection, the senior Yemeni energy official noted.

Last month, the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said the extended UN-sponsored truce, running from August 2 to October 2, included a commitment from the parties to intensify negotiations to reach an expanded truce agreement as soon as possible.

Under the terms of the truce, commercial flights have resumed from the Yemeni capital of Sana’a to Jordan and Egypt, while oil tankers have been able to dock in the lifeline port city of al-Hudaydah.

Moreover, in line with the agreement, the coalition agreed to end its attacks on Yemeni soil and end a simultaneous siege that it has been enforcing against Yemen.

Yemen has, however, reported many violations of the truce by the Saudi-led forces.

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- and Washington-friendly rulers 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.