SANA’A (Dispatches) – Yemen’s Armed Forces warned oil companies operating in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that they could be targeted as long as Riyadh and its allies fail to commit to a proper ceasefire.
Tweeting on Sunday, the Armed Forces’ spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said Yemeni troops were providing the oil companies with a window of opportunity to leave the Saudi and Emirati soils “fast.”
The Saudi kingdom and its allies, most notably the United Arab Emirates, have been waging a war against Yemen since March 2015, trying, in vain, to restore Yemen’s power to its former Riyadh-friendly officials.
The military campaign, which has been enjoying unstinting arms, logistical, and political support from the United States, has killed hundreds of thousands of people, and turned entire Yemen into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
A temporary United Nations-mediated ceasefire took effect between the warring sides in April and has been renewed twice ever since. The truce, however, expired on Sunday amid the invading coalition’s constant violations of the agreement and its refusal to properly lift a siege that it has been enforcing against Yemen simultaneously with the war.
“The warning stands as long as the countries that make up the invading American-Saudi coalition refuse to adhere to a ceasefire that allows the Yemeni people to exploit their oil wealth....,” Saree said.
Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement also warned that the truce between the country’s army and an invading Saudi-led coalition is at “a dead end,” amid the latter’s failure to address the dire humanitarian situation in the war-ravaged country.
Speaking through a statement on Saturday, Ansarullah movement said, “Over the past six months, we haven’t seen any serious willingness to address humanitarian issues as a top priority.”
The movement also accused the Saudi-led coalition of stalling in negotiations on measures that would “alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people.”
Simultaneously with taking the country under indiscriminate attacks, the Saudi-led forces have been enforcing an all-out siege on the Arab world’s most impoverished nation.
As a result of the combination of the warfare and the blockade, about 23.4 million of Yemen’s 30-million-strong population currently rely on humanitarian aid.
Also on Sunday, Hans Grundberg, the United Nations’ special envoy for Yemen, confirmed the failure of efforts aimed at extending the truce.
“The UN special envoy regrets that an agreement has not been reached today, as an extended and expanded truce would provide additional critical benefits to the population,” a statement said.
“I urge (the warring parties) to fulfill their obligation to the Yemeni people to pursue every avenue for peace,” the Swedish diplomat was quoted as saying.