Category: Yemen

ENLARGE Saudi soldiers on watch from behind sandbag barricade at the border with Yemen in Jazan, Saudi Arabia this past week. Photo: Hasan Jamali/Associated Press NAJRAN, Saudi Arabia—Yemen’s Houthi militias have no ability to confront the Saudi jets that pound them with deadly airstrikes. But on the ground, they are a much more formidable foe, exacting revenge in Saudi casualties with a string of border attacks. The 870-mile-long frontier stretches from the craggy mountains in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea province of Jizan, where deadly fighting with the Houthis tested the mettle of Saudi troops in 2009, and through the sandy deserts and basalt hills in the province of Najran, farther inland, where most of the recent Houthi attacks concentrate. These parts of Saudi Arabia were incorporated into the kingdom only after a war with Yemen in 1934, and, like many Yemenis, the Houthis—whose stronghold of Saada lies just an […]

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ADEN (Reuters) – Fighting between Yemen’s warring factions raged in southern and central parts of the country and air strikes hit Houthi militia forces in Aden on Friday, but there were no fresh moves toward dialogue. Saudi Arabia says it is winding down its month-old bombing operation against the Iran-allied Houthis and forces loyal to Yemen’s former president. But Riyadh pounded targets with at least 20 airstrikes across Yemen on Thursday and 10 more on Friday. The civilian death toll from the fighting and airstrikes since the bombing started on March 26 has reached an estimated 551 people, the United Nations said on Friday. Its children’s agency UNICEF said at least 115 children were among the dead. Washington and other Western countries backing the Saudi-led aerial campaign have grown increasingly worried about the humanitarian crisis on the ground and also about the risk of Sunni Muslim jihadist groups taking […]

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U.S. military ships deploy to Yemeni waterways to ensure security in and around key crude oil shipping lanes. File photo courtesy the U.S. Navy WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) — Conflict in Yemen may drag on the global crude oil market, not because of production, but because of strategic waterways, U.S. analysis said Thursday. Saudi Arabia this week announced an end to a pan-Arab air campaign in Yemen dubbed "Decisive Storm." The offensive was meant to ensure political stability in a Yemen under threat from the Houthi rebel group, which has backing from the Shiite government in Iran. Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi fled the country to Saudi Arabia. Riyadh through its official news agency announced it was transitioning to a counter-terrorism and political effort called "Restore Hope." Norwegian energy company DNO stopped work in Yemen last month because of the tense security situation in the country. Prior to […]

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Fresh airstrikes were reported in San’a and Taiz less than two days after Saudi Arabia said it would scale back air operations in Yemen. WSJ’s Asa Fitch has the story. Photo: Getty An Iranian flotilla suspected of carrying weapons bound for rebels in Yemen reversed course and appeared to be heading home, averting a potential confrontation in the Gulf of Aden, U.S. defense officials said Thursday. The cargo ships, accompanied by two Iranian warships, shifted course as a U.S. aircraft carrier moved within 200 nautical miles of the flotilla and Saudi Arabian officials said their sailors would attempt to search the ships if they tried to dock in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes on Houthi rebels for nearly a month. The fighters have overrun much of Yemen in the past eight months, capturing the capital San’a and the government, and seeking to […]

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Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Lloyd’s List Intelligence, Suez Canal Transit Authority, Eurostat, and Global Trade Atlas, using EIA conversion factors While Yemen is not a major oil-producing country, its coast borders the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a narrow chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. This strait is a strategic route for Persian Gulf oil, natural gas, and petroleum product shipments to Europe and North America, as well as European and North African oil exports to Asia. Although the strait is 18 miles wide at its narrowest point, tankers passing through must use two 2-mile-wide shipping channels. Trade in crude oil and petroleum products transiting the Bab el-Mandeb has increased steadily in recent years, growing from 2.7 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2010 to almost 4.7 million bbl/d in 2014. From 2013 to 2014, trade grew by more than 20%, with an increase […]

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DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday it was ending a month-long campaign of air strikes against the Houthi rebels who seized large areas of Yemen and said it would back a political solution to bring peace to its war-ravaged neighbor. Iran, which has supported the fellow Shi’ite Houthis, welcomed the ceasefire, which followed months of factional fighting between the militant group and forces loyal to the government, which was driven out of the capital Sanaa. "Operation Decisive Storm has achieved its goals…(including) removing the threat to Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries, especially in terms of heavy weapons," said a statement carried by Saudi state news agency SPA. It said a new phase called "Operation Restoring Hope" was beginning. It would combine political, diplomatic and military action but would focus on "the political process that will lead to a stable and secure future for Yemen." Saudi spokesman Brigadier […]

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DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday it was ending a month-long campaign of air strikes against the Houthi rebels who seized large areas of Yemen and said it would back a political solution to bring peace to its war-ravaged neighbor. Iran, which has supported the fellow Shi’ite Houthis, welcomed the ceasefire, which followed months of factional fighting between the militant group and forces loyal to the government, which was driven out of the capital Sanaa. "Operation Decisive Storm has achieved its goals…(including) removing the threat to Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries, especially in terms of heavy weapons," said a statement carried by Saudi state news agency SPA. It said a new phase called "Operation Restoring Hope" was beginning. It would combine political, diplomatic and military action but would focus on "the political process that will lead to a stable and secure future for Yemen." Saudi spokesman Brigadier […]

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ENLARGE The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, shown in a U.S. Navy handout photo in the Gulf of Oman on April 13, is heading to the Gulf of Aden as a deterrent to any Iranian attempts to funnel weapons and supplies to Houthi rebels. Photo: Reuters WASHINGTON—The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the Yemeni coast to join a growing fleet of ships keeping watch on an Iranian flotilla American defense officials suspect may be carrying arms for Houthi fighters in Yemen. The USS Theodore Roosevelt is heading to the Gulf of Aden as a deterrent to any Iranian attempts to funnel weapons and supplies to Houthi rebels in Yemen who have been the focus of Saudi Arabia airstrikes for the past three weeks, American defense officials said Monday. U.S. military officials said they are keeping an eye on as many as nine Iranian ships suspected of […]

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ENLARGE Houthi commander Abdel Malik Al Houthi delivers a televised speech on the Al Masirah television station in San’a, Yemen, on Sunday. Photo: yahya arhab/European Pressphoto Agency Abdul Malik Al Houthi, leader of Yemen’s ruling Houthi militants under siege from a Saudi-led effort to unseat him, vowed Sunday he would continue to resist an air campaign and naval blockade that has deepened turmoil in his country. “Our fighters will not evacuate from the main cities or the government institutions,” Mr. Houthi said in a speech, broadcast by the Houthi-run Al Masirah TV channel. “Anyone who thinks we will surrender is dreaming.” The Saudi-led strikes aim to restore to power Yemen’s exiled president , Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Mr. Hadi was forced to flee last month as Houthi militants bore down on the southern port city of Aden, where he had been based. He is now in Saudi Arabia, which […]

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MELBOURNE, Apr. 17 Sydney and Port Moresby-based Oil Search Ltd. has decided on a complete exit from its acreage in Yemen. The company has sold its 34% interest in the onshore Block 7 Al Barqa permit, which lies in the Shabwa basin about 340 km east of the capital Sana’a, to fellow joint venture partner Petsec Energy Ltd. The terms of the purchase were not disclosed, but Petsec joined the permit group last year by purchasing 21.25% from AWE and 8.5% from Mitsui for a total of about $1.5 million (Aus.). The purchase of Oil Search’s interest means Petsec now has a 63.75% interest in Block 7 and the company will take over as operator. The block contains the Al Meashar oil discovery made in 2010, however the political unrest in Yemen prompted Oil Search to declare a force majeure in 2011 and no work on the find, or […]

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