Employees of Yemeni Petroleum Company, YPC, organized a protest sit-in in front of the United Nations office in Sana’a, denouncing the blockade and piracy on fuel tankers.
The executive director of the company, Ammar Al-Adhra’i, held the UN responsible for the actions of the forces of aggression and its violation of the truce, calling for pressure on the US-Saudi aggression to release the ship and allow it to enter the port.
Al-Adhra’i stressed that the United Nations is an essential partner in doubling the suffering of Yemenis, noting that fuel is a vital and essential commodity that criminalizes its detention and its prevention of access to civilians.
He said that, “The coalition of aggression is currently detaining four fuel ships in light of the continuation of the temporary truce after the expiry of nearly a month of extending the truce. Today we have two ships in Djibouti, one of them gas, which completed the inspection and the other diesel, and they will be hacked and detained next to the four detained ships.”
Al-Adhra’i explained that it was agreed to enter 54 oil ships, of which only 33 ships had arrived since the start of the temporary truce, noting that the UN and its envoy did not move as required to pressure the US-Saudi aggression to enter the fuel ships.
He pointed out that the UN envoy made it clear in his last briefing to the Security Council that he would remove the obstacles, but he linked the removal of obstacles to funding, when he expressed his concern that the funding deficit would disrupt this mechanism from working.
“We tell the Secretary-General of the United Nations that fuel ships have been seized and pirated since the start of the verification and inspection mechanism in Djibouti,” Al-Adhra’i added.
He wondered, “If the United Nations, the UN envoy and the inspection mechanism are a neutral party, then why are the ships linked to the coalition ships and forced to move to the detention point,” noting that this confirms that the United Nations is a key and effective partner in piracy on fuel ships.
A statement issued by the protest condemned the shameful UN silence regarding piracy on fuel ships of a humanitarian character and preventing them from entering the port of Hodeidah despite their inspection and obtaining permits.
He denounced the falsification of facts by the envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, in his briefing to the Security Council and his talk about the smooth entry of oil ships to the port of Hodeidah and the guarantee of this body and its officials to implement all the provisions of the armistice, which did not have its impact in the desired way.
