Yemeni forces will target Saudi oil facilities if coalition tankers continue smuggling fuel: Official

Mohammad Tahir Anam, an adviser to the Yemeni Supreme Political Council, warned the alliance that Yemeni authorities would not allow Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to further violate the extended United Nations-brokered ceasefire and plunder Yemeni oil and gas.

The Yemeni official reported a sharp increase in the theft of Yemeni oil and gas in addition to the seizure of Yemeni vessels off the coast of the country’s southern province of Shabwah.

“We will be targeting Saudi companies and ships, along with their oil and gas refineries,” Anam said.

Moreover, Mohammed Muftah, another adviser to the Yemeni Supreme Political Council, gave the Saudi-led coalition a stern warning, stating that tanker ships that loot Yemeni crude oil and natural gas will be targeted.

His remarks came a few days after Apolytares tanker, carrying more than two million barrels of stolen Yemen oil worth over $270 million, departed al-Shahar port in Hadhramaut province of Yemen en route to the Port of Sriracha in Thailand.

“The proceeds of the oil shipment could cover salaries of all civil servants throughout Yemeni provinces for at least two months,” Muftah said.

The senior Yemeni official went on to say that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are taking advantage of the ongoing ceasefire in order to loot Yemeni oil and gas through their companies and tankers.

Muftah stressed that companies and oil tankers involved in the theft of Yemeni oil and gas resources will be hit by Yemeni retaliatory strikes.

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 Mansur 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.