Saudi-led coalition seizes two Yemen-bound fuel tankers

Essam al-Mutawakel, a spokesman for the Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC), announced on Wednesday that the Saudi-led coalition impounded the ships named Cosmograph and Daytona, which were carrying thousands of tons of diesel fuel.

Mutawakil added that the vessels were impounded despite their humanitarian nature and obtaining necessary permits from the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNIVM).

The senior Yemeni energy official further noted that “the aggressor coalition and the UN are responsible for the continuation of piracy of ships carrying petroleum derivatives and products, seizing them and setting financial penalties for them,” stressing that the Yemeni people bear the suffering caused by this action.

The latest development comes more than two weeks after the Riyadh-led coalition seized a vessel named Primorye, which was carrying thousands of tons of mazut, and prevented it from reaching Hudaydah port despite undergoing inspection and securing UN clearance in Djibouti.

Mahdi al-Mashat, head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, has already warned the Saudi-coalition about the continued seizure of ships carrying fuel, which is in a blatant violation of a UN-sponsored ceasefire agreement between the parties to the Yemen conflict.

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.