A Saudi-led military coalition threatened Tuesday to target Yemen’s rebel-held ports after Huthi fighters seized a UAE-flagged ship — unless the vessel is freed.
On Monday, the pro-Iran Shiite Huthi rebels based in the key Red Sea port of Hodeida seized the Emirati-flagged Rwabee ship claiming it contained military materials.
Saudi Arabia condemned what it called piracy against a civilian vessel.
“The terrorist, Iran-backed Huthi militia must promptly release the commercial cargo ship (RWABEE) with all its humanitarian, non-combatant cargo intact,” coalition spokesman Turki Al-Malki said.
“Should the militia fail to comply, all ports that launch and harbor these acts of piracy, hijacking and armed robbery, and those pirates who perpetrate them will render said ports legitimate military targets,” he added, in a statement quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Hodeida has been a lifeline entry point for aid supplies to Yemen’s largely rebel-held north, including the capital Sanaa.
The seized ship is being held in the Huthi-held port of Salif, north of Hodeida, and some 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the border with Saudi.
The coalition said the vessel was in international waters when it was seized, and was carrying “medical field equipment” meant for the construction of a hospital on the Yemeni archipelago of Socotra.
The Huthis meanwhile claim that the boat was in Yemeni waters “without authorization” and carrying military materials.
“The coalition could strike the ship if the Huthis do not release it,” a Saudi official told AFP, asking for anonymity.
Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015 to support the internationally-recognized government against the Huthis.
The United Arab Emirates is a member of the Saudi-led coalition and has not publicly reacted to the incident, the first of its kind in more than two years.
In November 2019, the Huthis seized two South Korean vessels and a Saudi-flagged tug in the Red Sea a few miles off Uqban island, north of Hodeida.
The war in Yemen has turned an already poor country into one of the world’s most devastating humanitarian disasters.
The United Nations has estimated the war killed 377,000 people by the end of 2021, both directly and indirectly through hunger and disease.