Sanaa responds to Security Council: Emirati ship was carrying weapons, not dates or toys.
In response to a Security Council statement, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Yemeni National Salvation Government stressed the need for all parties to respect the sovereignty and territorial waters of Yemen and said that the Emirati ship “Rawabi” was carrying weapons and was detained in Yemeni waters.
Reacting to the Security Council statement on the seizure of the Emirati ship “Rawabi” in Yemeni waters, Yemeni Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein al-Azzi said: “The Rawabi ship was not carrying dates or toys for children, but weapons to support extremist groups. “They were threatening human lives.”
“This ship belongs to a country that is involved in the aggression of our people and is at war with us and has entered our territorial waters in violation of the law,” he explained, according to Ansarullah news website.
Al-Aziz stressed that the Security Council statement is based on financial considerations and has nothing to do with the rules, ethics or safety of navigation and ship security.
“It is unfortunate that the role of the Security Council has become very embarrassing at this level of misleading public opinion and solidarity with the killers and lawbreakers,” the Yemeni deputy foreign minister added.
Acknowledging that the Yemeni navy had the legal right to target the enemy ship “Rawabi” but did not do so, he said: “Respect for the sovereignty of Greater Yemen and its territorial waters is very important.”
After days of escalating military attacks by the Saudi aggression coalition against Yemen, especially on the east coast, Sanaa surprised everyone on January 3rd with an unprecedented operation on the west coast, seizing an UAE cargo ship carrying military equipment in western Yemeni waters. On that day, the UK Maritime Trade Center (UKMTO) announced that it had received reports of an attack on a ship near the Yemeni port of Ras Isa in the Red Sea and advised Marines to exercise extreme caution at the scene.
The Global Admiral later reported that the ship attacked about 23 nautical miles west of the Ras Isa oil terminal in the Red Sea, but the identities of the ship’s owners are unknown and an investigation is under way. Al-Arabiya then claimed that the Yemeni Ansarullah movement had seized a UAE-flagged cargo ship along the city of Al-Hudaidah. The Saudis claimed that the ship was carrying medical equipment for a Saudi hospital on the island of Socotra.
