By Staff, Agencies

The Yemen Petroleum Company [YPC] lashed out at US-backed invading Saudi coalition for impounding Yemeni fuel tankers, calling the United Nations "a partner in the maritime piracy."

“The US-Saudi coalition keeps confiscating ships carrying Yemeni fuel under the auspices of the United Nations,” YPC Executive Director Ammar al-Adhrai said.

Al-Adhrai made the remarks on Friday during a protest held outside the UN office in the Yemeni capital Sanaa under the slogan "Denying the siege is an additional crime."

"Since the beginning of 2021, only one ship carrying diesel has been able to enter Hudaydah,” he added, referring to the strategic port that is a lifeline for millions of Yemenis.

Al-Adhrai warned that the lives of 26 million Yemenis will be at risk if the act of preventing Yemeni fuel vessels from entering Hudaydah continues.

"UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths must return to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea that criminalizes acts of piracy. It is also the duty of all the countries of the world to make their utmost efforts to stop acts of piracy against any country …. The United Nations is involved in the maritime piracy," the Yemeni official said.

In mid-March, Al-Adhrai announced that the total damage caused by the US-Saudi coalition’s seizure of tankers had reached $34.5 million this year.

Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on its southern neighbor in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allied states, and with arms and logistics support from the US and several other Western countries.

The aim was to return to power the Saudi-backed former regime and crush the Ansarullah revolutionary movement which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.

Although the war has killed tens of thousands of innocent Yemenis and destroyed the impoverished state’s infrastructure, however, it failed to achieve its goals.

Fuel shortages have knocked out water pumps, generators in hospitals and disrupted aid supplies across the impoverished Arab country.