SANA’A (Dispatches) – Yemen’s minister of oil and minerals has warned foreign companies against plundering energy resources of the war-wracked Arab country, stressing that Sana’a will spare no effort to defend national sovereignty and safeguard public interests and wealth.
Ahmed Dares called on multinational oil and gas companies to enter into negotiations with the Sana’a government before taking any actions to explore and extract crude oil and natural gas in Yemen, and cautioned of adverse consequences in case the warning is not taken into serious consideration.
“Sana’a will not remain idle in the face of any escalation of tensions by the Saudi-led coalition of aggression in the economic field,” the Yemeni oil minister noted.
In late October, Yemen’s government issued a warning after targeting a cargo ship off an oil terminal in the war-wrecked country’s south to prevent Saudi-backed forces from using it for oil exports.
In a statement, Yemen’s Foreign Ministry also denounced the UN Security Council’s reaction to the “warning strike” at the al-Dubba terminal, where a Greek oil tanker was docked to load oil. The statement came after the council denounced the strike as a serious threat to the peace process and stability of Yemen.
The ministry stressed that Yemen will not hesitate to defend national sovereignty, and safeguard public interests and wealth against any act of looting or abuse.
Back in November, Yemeni army troops and allied fighters managed to stop a foreign oil tanker in the waters off the energy-rich southern Shabwah Province as it was trying to smuggle hundreds of thousands of barrels of fuel out of the impoverished Arab nation.
At that time, Spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree said in a statement that the country’s forces sent out several warning messages to the tanker ship, which had anchored in the port of Qena located in the Rudum district of the province, and did not allow the vessel to loot the Yemeni nation’s natural resources.
A senior member of the political bureau of Yemen’s popular Ansarullah resistance movement has sharply criticized the December military and security cooperation agreement between Yemen’s Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), denouncing it as a failed attempt aimed at justification of the Abu Dhabi regime’s aggression against Yemen.
“The recent military and security cooperation agreement between the UAE and Saudi mercenaries could be viewed as an effort in line with the atrocious Saudi-led aggression, and meant to implement its evil conspiracies,” Ali al-Qahhoum said.
“We tell member states of the Saudi-led coalition that their plots are all doomed to failure, and Yemeni army troops and security forced will hopefully thwart their conspiracies and upset the U.S., the UK, Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” he added.
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.