Holding 19 oil ships off Yemen not true, PRI says

SANAA, April 30 (YPA) – The Public Radio International (PRI) investigated Saudi claims of Houthi forces seizures of oil ships off the coast and found that they were entirely made up. Stephen Snyder reports.

A Saudi Arabian diplomat said last weekend that 19 oil tankers were seized by Houthi forces off the coast of Yemen. Then, the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC, repeated the story. But based on interviews and research conducted by PRI, there is no hostage situation at all.

“It isn’t surprising that the Saudi government is fabricating stories like this about Yemen”, according to “The American Conservative” magazine reported.

The magazine said the enemies of Yemen, “the Saudi-led coalition and their allies”, are seeking to portray the  Yemeni fighters as a threat to the international shipping line, but the only party to the conflict that has been interfering with shipping in and around Yemen is the Saudi coalition with their blockade.

It indicated that since there is nothing to back up their warnings about threats to international shipping from Yemen, the Saudis are reduced to making things up out of thin air.

“The Saudi coalition blockade is responsible for delaying and diverting the delivery of essential goods to the ports that serve the vast majority of the population in Yemen, and they have been doing this since their intervention began in 2015”, the magazine said.

The American conservative called on the Saudi-led coalition to fully lift its blockade instead of concocting bogus stories to distract attention from their cruel policy of collective punishment.

E.M