Saudi Arabia’s goals behind seizing oil ships heading to Yemen

Despite the agreement to extend the Yemen ceasefire, the Saudi side, as in the past, did not abide by any of its commitments regarding the ceasefire and continues to violate this agreement, although it was supposed to alleviate the suffering of Yemenis based on the agreements that were signed. The Saudis not only violated the ceasefire hundreds of times, but also prevented oil tankers from entering Yemen, and while the Yemeni people faced an acute shortage of fuel, the Saudi-aggressor coalition seized four of Yemen’s fuel ships in the past few days.

In response to this piracy by the Saudis, Issam Al-Mutawakil, spokesman for the Yemeni Petroleum Company (YPC), said that three ships loaded with fuel, including two ships carrying fuel for power stations, and one ship carrying diesel, were seized, despite that all have permits from the United Nations.

According to Al-Mutawakel, and in accordance with the ceasefire, it was agreed that 54 ships loaded with fuel would arrive at Yemeni ports, but so far only 33 ships have arrived at these ports. According to Ansar Allah officials, the United Nations, which is overseeing the ceasefire, did not pressure the aggressor coalition to allow ships carrying oil products to enter Yemeni ports, and since the ceasefire began, hardly a few fuel ships have entered Yemen. Despite the desire of the Yemenis to get their fuel from countries that are out of the war, as the spokesperson for the Yemeni Oil Company said, the aggressor coalition countries and the United Nations have restricted Yemeni fuel imports from UAE ports and previously raised ship prices for the benefit of UAE banks.

The UAE has occupied many oil-rich areas of Yemen in recent years with the help of its mercenaries, and it reaped a lot of income by plundering these resources. The UAE is also trying to keep these oil and gas resources forever, and it seeks to divide Yemen.

Seizing oil tankers to cause a crisis in Yemen

By seizing Yemeni oil tankers and handing over a small amount of them to the government, Saudi Arabia is trying to put the Yemeni people under economic pressure and create new crises for the government of national salvation, found in Sanaa. Yemenis are now in dire need of fuel resources to be able to solve part of their economic problems. The fuel crisis has spread to all parts of Yemen to the extent that bakeries are facing many problems in baking bread.

According to the report previously published by Reuters on the fuel problems in Yemen, bakers in Yemen are now using firewood as a heating system for bakers, and this has led to the flourishing of the timber trade despite the environmental problems that this country suffers from after the war with Saudi Arabia.

The lack of fuel in the transportation sector and providing services to individuals has caused many challenges. This situation has caused an acute shortage of fuel for vital facilities in Yemen, including hospitals, medical centers and power stations. The fuel shortage has caused the prices of basic commodities to rise sharply, and the price hike in a situation where Yemenis are facing a food crisis and a humanitarian catastrophe could make the government’s work more difficult than ever.

Increasing public discontent with the process of providing aid to the Sana’a government is the same policy that the Riyadh authorities are pursuing in order to fuel economic problems and incite people against Ansar Allah by withholding fuel. Given that winter is also coming, Saudi Arabia is trying to make the living conditions in Yemen more difficult by seizing oil tankers. However, citizens have shown in the past eight years that they stand firmly against any pressure and will not give in to the demands of the aggressors.

Saudi fears supplying missiles with fuel

One of the reasons Saudi Arabia is not allowing more fuel to enter Yemen is that the Saudis are concerned that Ansar Allah will use these resources to develop missiles and that by stockpiling these weapons in their arsenals, if cease-fire agreements fail, they will be used to target Saudi soil. Although the Yemenis now have enough missiles they can use to target hundreds of bases in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the Saudis are still trying to disrupt the fuel supply route to Yemen, where Ansar Allah cannot make more weapons.

The seizure of oil tankers is a clear example of ceasefire violations, and Ansar Allah’s leaders have repeatedly emphasized that if the aggressors do not abide by the terms of the agreement, they will resume their missile operations against Saudi positions. Rather, they warned that this was the last time they extended the ceasefire, and if Saudi Arabia violated it, there was no longer any need to extend it. In other words, they gave the Saudis the last chance to make up for their mistakes, but the Saudis do not listen to these warnings.

A conspiracy against Ansar Allah

The Saudi authorities have come to the conclusion that they cannot easily get out of the quagmire of their own making in Yemen and must continue in this situation for an indefinite period of time. On the other hand, they are also sure that Ansar Allah will not accept a ceasefire that will not achieve any results. Ansar Allah has warned against a unilateral ceasefire in favor of Saudi Arabia that does not benefit the Yemenis. This is why the Saudis’ assessment that Ansar Allah will resume its operations soon. Therefore, by seizing oil tankers, the Saudis deliberately paved the way to incite Ansar Allah to carry out limited operations against Aramco’s oil facilities, and with this excuse, they get two benefits. One is blaming Ansar Allah for violating the ceasefire, thus, the world will not accuse them of violating the ceasefire. On the other hand, the Saudis can take advantage of this incident in the international community against Ansar Allah.

The attack on Saudi oil facilities in a situation where the world is facing an energy crisis due to the effects of the war in Ukraine could lead to an increase in oil prices, and because Westerners are trying to lower the price of gas and oil, they will clash with Ansar Allah. Accordingly, the Riyadh authorities hope to be able to bring about a change in their poor military situation. So the Saudis will try to persuade White House officials to provide them with more missile systems in order to secure the oil facilities so that they can defend their interests, even though these systems have so far been ineffective and have not been able to intercept Ansar Allah’s missiles.

Despite Saudi Arabia’s actions, Ansar Allah’s leaders have always been vigilant and developed a balanced response strategy to the crimes of the aggressor coalition and tried to prevent further tensions. So, if Saudi Arabia continues its violations, Ansar Allah can take advantage of on-ground options to meet its fuel needs, and by equipping its forces in the oil-rich areas of Shabwa and Marib Governorate, it can bring these areas under its control. These governorates have sufficient oil and gas reserves that can solve a large part of the Yemenis’ problems in the current situation, and in the meantime, some developments have occurred recently on the enemy front in favor of Ansar Allah. This is because the tension between the Emirati and Saudi mercenaries has escalated into a fight between them in the southern governorates of Yemen.

Accordingly, the Muslim Brotherhood in southern Yemen has a deep disagreement with the Saudi-led Presidential Council, and this is a good opportunity for Ansar Allah to use both sides of the enemy front to their advantage and advance to liberate more Yemeni cities.