Alwaght- Retaliatory attacks on crude-carrying vessels by Yemeni resistance forced Saudi Arabia to suspended all oil shipments through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Thursday the kingdom would halt all oil shipments through the strait immediately.
The suspension will last "until the situation becomes clearer and maritime transit through Bab al-Mandeb is safe", al-Falih said in a statement.
Yemeni resistance forces targeted Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, causing minor damage to one, the Saudi-Emirati coalition fighting the group in the war-torn country said.
On Wednesday morning, the Ansarullah-run al-Masirah television network reported that Yemeni fighters had launched a missile attack on the Saudi Dammam battleship off the western coast of Yemen.
However, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement late on Wednesday that the Houthi fighters had attacked two Saudi Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), each carrying 2 million barrels of oil, in the Red Sea.
“Saudi Arabia is temporarily halting all oil shipments through Bab el-Mandeb Strait immediately until the situation becomes clearer and the maritime transit through Bab el-Mandeb is safe,” he said.
Falih also said one of the VLCCs had sustained “minimal damage” and efforts were underway to move it to the nearest Saudi port.
Meanwhile, Saudi oil giant Aramco confirmed the Yemeni attacks on the vessels, which were operated by the kingdom’s shipping company Bahri.
It further claimed the decision to suspend shipments via Bab el-Mandeb was “in the interest of the safety of ships and their crews and to avoid the risk of oil spill.”
The Bab el-Mandab Strait, which is the southern entrance to the Red Sea, is one of the world’s key shipping lanes for crude oil and allows crude exports into the European market.
Nearly 15,000 Yemenis, mostly women, children and the elderly, have been killed since March 2015 when the Saudi regime launched a brutal military campaign against the impoverished state. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war. The Saudi-led war has also triggered a worsening humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions across Yemen with millions facing death and destitution.
However, the allied forces of the Yemeni army and popular committees established by Ansarullah revolutionaries have been heroically confronting the aggression with all means, inflicting huge losses upon Saudi-led forces.
The Saudi-led coalition has also imposed an inhuman blockade on the impoverished country’s ports and airports as a part of the aggression.
