News - Yemen: The media secretary of the Supreme Economic Committee, Ibrahim Al-Saraji, confirmed Monday that the US-Saudi mercenaries brought in international companies in an attempt to loot an amount of oil through the port of Al-Dhabba in Hadramout Governorate.

According to the (Saba) agency, Al-Saraji said: “In a new attempt to loot the sovereign wealth represented in crude oil, the aggression's mercenaries' brought in the PRATIKA oil tanker and two launchers, in addition to six unidentified warships, noting that this time international smuggling companies were used, which own an oil tanker and launchers.

Al-Saraji pointed out that the Supreme Economic Committee, and in implementation of the directives of the President of the Supreme Political Council, continued to take all legal measures through the competent authorities, before the tanker entered the Yemeni territorial waters. It addressed the oil companies related to the oil tanker and launchers, not to approach the regional waters and violate the decision to prevent looting. 

He stressed that the countries whose flags the vessels carry, and the countries to which the crews of the vessels participating in the attempt to plunder the sovereign wealth belong, have been addressed to stop their participation in the attempt to plunder the Yemeni sovereign wealth.

"As a result, the crew of one of the boats responded to the legal procedures and communications and left the Yemeni territorial waters, while the oil tanker and the rest of the crew ignored those communications, and violated the Yemeni territorial waters on Monday morning," Al-Saraji said.

The media secretary of the Higher Economic Committee stated that the mercenaries of the aggression intended to loot 2.1 million barrels of crude oil, with an estimated value of $174 million.

According to the Supreme Economic Committee, after making all legal procedures that were ignored, violating Yemeni territorial waters and attempting to plunder sovereign wealth, it was raised to the leadership of the Armed Forces responsible for protecting and preserving national wealth in accordance with the constitution. Then the Armed Forces fulfilled their duty, and forced the tanker (PRATIKA ) to leave at 5:00 pm Monday.

And the Supreme Economic Committee held the mercenaries and those involved with them responsible for their attempt to convert the oil installations into military barracks. He stressed that it would have been better for the mercenaries to exert efforts in seeking to end the suffering of the Yemeni people in all governorates, by adhering to the constitution and enforceable laws that are binding on allocating the returns of sovereign wealth in their favor.

The Supreme Economic Committee renewed its call to all local and foreign companies to fully comply with the decision to prevent the looting of sovereign wealth, which was taken to preserve the rights of the Yemeni people and serve their interests.

Earlier, Yemen's Armed Forces announced thwarting an attempt to loot crude oil from the port of Al-Dhabbah in Hadhramaut Governorate, used for smuggling by the US-Saudi aggression.

“The Armed Forces operation forced an Oil ship that was in the port to leave after reaching near the port. Several warning messages were sent but the ship didn't respond,” the Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e said in a tweet. He stressed that the enemy tried to take measures to avoid direction but the Armed Forces were able to monitor and deal with the situation.

The Armed Forces reiterated their commitment to protecting the sovereign national wealth as one of the rights of the Yemeni people.

On November 10th, Yemeni Armed Forces thwarted an attempt to loot crude oil from the port of Qena in Shabwa Governorate, used by the US-Saudi aggression for smuggling.

In late October, Yemen's Armed Forces announced in a military statement the implementation of a warning drone strike to prevent an oil ship that was trying to loot crude oil through the port of Dabba in Hadramout Governorate.

Brigadier Sare'e explained that the warning message came to prevent the continuous looting of oil wealth and not to allocate it to serve the people in paying salaries and services.