Yemeni foreign minister confirms seriousness of Houthi attacks on oil facilities

Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak confirmed, during a meeting with US assistant secretary of state Barbara Lev today, Friday, the seriousness of the attacks launched by the Houthis on oil facilities.

During the meeting, Ben Mubarak explained the importance of the decision taken by the Yemeni National Defense Council to consider the Houthis a terrorist organization.

The Yemeni news agency said the US assistant secretary of state affirmed US condemnation of Houthi attacks on oil ports and renewed his country’s support for Yemen’s security and stability.

The Yemeni foreign minister also discussed with the UN envoy to the country, Hans Grundberg, the Houthi attacks against oil installations in the governorates of Shabwa and Hadramout, and the repercussions of this on the economic situation.

During the meeting, bin Mubarak described the Houthi group’s attacks on the oil sector as “a military action against all Yemenis in all regions of Yemen, through which the militia seeks to obstruct government efforts to provide basic services.”

Yemen’s foreign minister accused the Houthi group of not being serious about efforts to reach pace and its “subordination to Iran’s expansionist agenda” in the region.

Bin Mubarak has criticized the issuance by the Houthis of the so-called code of professional conduct, describing it as “obstructing efforts to pace and aimed at transforming the administrative apparatus in what he described as a “militia apparatus”.