Over 400,000 Barrels of Yemeni Crude Looted by UAE-Operated Tanker: Report
The United Arab Emirates reportedly looted 400,000 barrels of Yemeni crude oil after a UAE tanker left a port in Yemen's southern province of Shabwah with the crude, as Abu Dhabi and Riyadh continue to steal the impoverished country's natural resources.
The Gulf Aetos tanker, carrying more than 400,000 barrels of crude oil, departed Rudum port on Sunday, according to a Yemeni official.
According to international benchmark pricing, the crude oil cargo is estimated to cost $43.640 million, said the official, who did not want to be identified.
He noted that the development falls within the framework of systematic looting of Yemen’s oil reserves and natural resources by the Saudi-led war coalition and its allied Takfiri militants, as well as tight measures aimed at preventing cash flow into the country.
The official went on to describe as “unacceptable” the sale or transfer of shares in any economic sphere of the country by the former Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
He called on the international community and all world bodies to perform their duties and stop the former Yemeni government from tampering with the national wealth of the war-hit country.
The latest looting of Yemeni crude oil comes two weeks after a supertanker left the port of Ash Shihr in Yemen’s eastern province of Hadhramaut with more than two million barrels of looted crude oil worth over $270 million.
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.