LONDON: Yemeni Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani said on Saturday recent repeated attempts by the Houthi militia to target oil tankers and threaten the security and safety of international shipping lines in the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandeb was a serious escalation.
He added that it falls in line with the Iran-backed group’s efforts to damage oil infrastructure and global energy supplies at Tehran’s behest, arming and planning.
The Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen said on Wednesday that it had thwarted an attempt b the Houthi militia to carry out an attack in the southern Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandeb on giant oil tankers and destroyed two explosive-laden Houthi boats.
“Houthi militia threaten international navigation, taking advantage of the Stockholm Agreement and control over Hodiedah, under the eyes of the UN Mission to Support Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA), which made no progress and has become a cover for the militia to violate the agreement and commit terrorist activities,” Al-Eryani said in a series of tweets.
He also said that the coalition was making “exceptional efforts on behalf of the world in securing oil tankers and shipping lanes,” including neutralizing six remotely controlled booby-trapped boats and a number of drones that were being prepared in Hodeidah and Saleef ports in the past 72 hours.
He called on the international community, including the UN and US envoys, to stop Houthi activities that threaten energy sources and supplies and the security and safety of international shipping lanes, work to include them on international terrorism lists, and prosecute their leaders as war criminals and hold them accountable.
