Houthi Attacks on Oil Facilities Threaten Peace Efforts: Yemeni PM to US Ambassador

Yemen’s Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed said on Monday that Houthi attacks on oil facilities endanger the current attempts to reach a peace deal in the war-ravaged Arab country. Meeting with US Ambassador to Yemen Stephen Fagin at the presidential palace in the southern port city of Aden, Saeed said the Houthis’ repeated attacks on crude oil export terminals could bring to an end the ongoing efforts to achieve peace and alleviate the country’s deep humanitarian crisis. At the same meeting, high-ranking Yemeni military officials and ministers called for international action to counter the Houthi militia’s “terrorist attacks” on the oil ports, which, they said, also threaten the safety of international navigation, the state-run Saba news agency reported. Earlier Monday, the Houthis launched a drone attack on a government-controlled oil port of Dhabah in the southeastern province of Hadramout. No casualties or property damage were reported. A UN-brokered truce between the Houthis and forces supporting the Saudi-backed Yemeni government expired on October 2. Yemen’s civil war began in late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia occupied several northern cities, forcing the Yemeni government out of the capital, Sanaa.