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Houthi rebels reject UN call to free UAE-flagged vessel

Houthi rebels reject UN call to free UAE-flagged vessel, Transatlantic Today
A massive container ship plies the Savannah River in Savannah, Georgia. Original image from Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress collection. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.

YEMEN (Transatlantic Today): Yemeni Houthi rebels have turned down a UN plea to free an Emirati-flagged vessel and its 11-member crew that they seized earlier this month, claiming the ship was carrying “military assets.”

The Rwabee was a “civilian cargo vessel” chartered by a Saudi corporation that has been in international waters transporting equipment for a field hospital, according to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Hussein al-Azzi, a Houthi official, alleged it was carrying military assets. He informed the Houthis’ Al Masirah television that the Rwabee vessel was carrying guns for radicals, not toys for children.

The United Nations Security Council urged the “prompt release” of the Rwabee and her crew on Friday, emphasizing “the importance of freedom of movement in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea,” a vital maritime route.

It also urged “all sides to de-escalate the situation in Yemen,” including working with the UN special envoy to go back to the bargaining table.

After the Houthis conquered the capital, Sanaa, the previous year, a Saudi-led military alliance intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to assist the internationally recognized government.

The Rwabee was taken by the Houthis, who are backed by Iran, off the coast of Hodeidah on January 3, and subsequently published a video purporting to show military weapons on board, namely military-style inflatable boats, trucks, and other vehicles, and what appeared to be a stockpile of guns.

According to Al Jazeera, a Saudi-led coalition statement accused the Houthis of “armed piracy” and said the ship was transporting medical supplies from a destroyed Saudi field hospital on Yemen’s remote island of Socotra, without providing evidence.

The Houthis are accused of transporting weapons onto the ship, according to Saudi official media.

Although the UAE remains a member of the Saudi-led coalition, it withdrew its soldiers in 2019. The crew of the Rwabee, according to Abu Dhabi’s petition to the UN, comprised of 11 people, including seven Indians and others from Ethiopia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines.

The United Nations Security Council has criticized an increase in incidents off Yemen’s coast, particularly attacks on civilian and industrial ships, saying they “represent a substantial risk to the maritime safety of boats in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.”

Yemen has been engaged in civil war since the Houthis gained control of the city, Sanaa, along with much of the northern half of the nation in 2014, compelling the government to evacuate to the south and then to Saudi Arabia.

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