Amid Washington’s aggressive attempts to wrest control over energy reserves and plunder natural resources in conflict-plagued Yemen, a new batch of US military forces has entered the country’s oil-rich eastern province of Hadhramaut.
Faraan: Yemen Press Agency, citing informed local sources who asked not to be named, reported that Hadhramaut Provincial Governor, Mabkhout bin Madi, had a face-to-face meeting with the US delegation in his office.
During the meeting, bin Madi complained to the American military officials about the Sana’a-based National Salvation Government’s decision to ban the Saudi-led coalition from exporting the Yemeni crude oil, asserting that the decision would have adverse effects on the global energy market.
The development comes as visits by Western officials to eastern Yemen has lately witnessed an accelerating trend, the most recent of which was the visit of French Ambassador to Aden, Jean-Marie Safa, in late September. The visits are viewed as West’s efforts to secure its energy needs against the backdrop of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine.
A fisherman has reportedly been killed and two others were injured after a US Navy ship fired at their fishing boat off the coast of Yemen’s southeastern province of al-Mahrah. Back on July 28, a batch of US military forces landed at al-Ghaydah Airport in Yemen’s southeastern province of al-Mahrah onboard a flight from Riyan International Airport in Mukalla, which lies on the shores of the Arabian Sea and about 480 kilometers (300 miles) east of Aden.
Yemen Press Agency reported at the time that the arrival of the US forces was followed by a major disruption to internet connectivity in the Sayhut district, blaming the internet blackout on the installation of sophisticated surveillance devices by American troops. Earlier, a top-ranking Yemeni official said US and British military trainers had arrived at a port in Mahrah on vessels loaded with munitions as well as military and logistical equipment.