Following a series of attacks against oil tankers in the Red Sea, the US has classified Yemen’s Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO). The designation is under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Houthi Authorities in Yemen gave approval to the United Nations to visit and assess a deteriorating oil tanker off Yemen’s coast that is threatening to spill 1.1 million barrels of crude oil into the Red Sea.
An explosion took place at the Bir Ali crude single buoy mooring system, Yemen, on October 3, when an Aframax tanker was loading crude oil. The explosion is believed to be because of a sea mine.
The United Nations is still waiting for Yemen’s Houthi group to allow the deployment of an assessment team to a decaying oil tanker that is threatening to spill 1.1 million barrels of crude oil.
The UN environment chief said that “time is running out” to prevent an environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe from a deteriorating oil tanker loaded with 1.1 million barrels of crude oil that is moored off Yemen.
A total of six pirates attacked a Stolt Tankers tanker, named Stolt Apal, 75 nautical miles off Yemen’s coast on May 17.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen informed that it foiled an imminent terrorist attack against an oil tanker off Yemen’s coast, on the Arabian Sea. The attack took place as the tanker was sailing about 90 nautical miles southeast of Nishtun port, Tuesday.
Naval forces from the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen on February 23, claimed that they foiled an “imminent terrorist” attack by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in the southern Red Sea, a major commercial shipping channel.
RMI issued a ship security advisory to shipping, warning that the conflict in Yemen continues to pose potential risk to RMI-flagged vessels transiting the southern Red Sea, Bab el Mandeb Strait, and Gulf of Aden, despite the current limited cease-fire between the Houthis and the Saudi Arabian-led coalition.
Houthi rebel forces released two Korean vessels and one Saudi tug that they had captured near Hodeidah earlier this week, after South Korea deployed a destroyer and called for American assistance. Earlier this week, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government reported that Houthi rebels boarded a tug off the coast of Hodeidah and sources said that the tug has been brought to the Houthi-controlled seaport of Salif, just north of Hodeidah.
