YEMENI army soldiers backed by members of the Popular Committees have managed to foil an attack launched by Saudi naval forces on Yemen’s strategic port city of Aden in the south.
More than 50 Saudi naval vessels participated in last Tuesday’s attack on Aden, situated about 346 kilometres (214 miles) south of the capital, Sana’a. A number of Saudi soldiers were killed during the fighting, while some others sustained injuries, the sources said. Yemeni forces have also succeeded in seizing one of the attacking vessels, taking its crew members captive. The sources further noted that this was the second failed attack by the Saudi navy on Aden over the past few days.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, Saudi warplanes launched three aerial attacks on the Jazirat al-Ummal district of Aden. There were no immediate reports on possible casualties and the extent of casualties inflicted.
Late on Sunday, Saudi military aircraft carried out over thirty airstrikes on Aden’s civil airport within a few hours. The Saudi warplanes struck the governor’s office in Crater district of the city earlier in the day.
Saudi Arabia launched its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 – without a UN mandate – in a bid to undermine the Huthis and to restore power to the country’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.
On April 21, Riyadh announced the end of the first phase of its unlawful military operation, but airstrikes have continued with Saudi bombers targeting different areas across the country in a new phase.
On May 1, the World Health Organisation said over 1,244 people lost their lives and 5,044 others were injured in Yemen from March 19 to April 27.
Hundreds of women and children are among the victims, according to the United Nations health agency.
• Arab countries in the Persian Gulf are reportedly seeking more weapons in order to support a potential nuclear agreement with Iran during an upcoming meeting with US President Barack Obama. Citing US and Arab officials, the Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that the leaders of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC), including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, will ask Obama to provide the countries with additional fighter jets, missile batteries and surveillance equipment.
They intend to make the request in a meeting with the US president later this month, according to the report. The White House announced that Obama will meet the Arab leaders at the White House on May 13 and at Camp David, Maryland, on May 14. According to the officials, the Arab leaders also plan to call for new defence agreements with Washington that would outline terms and scenarios under which the US would intervene in the event of a possible military conflict with Iran.
Obama met with Saudi King, Salman bin Abdul Aziz, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, January 27, 2015. The United States has long turned down the Arab nation’s request for boosting their military arsenals because it wants Israel to maintain a military advantage in the Middle East.
Republicans, however, warned against any move by Obama to meet the Arabs’ request.
‘I’m very worried that President Obama will promise every military toy they’ve always wanted and a security agreement short of a treaty, with the understanding they have to be sympathetic to this deal,’ said Sen. Lindsey Graham. ‘If I get a hint of that, a whiff of that, then I would do everything I could to block every bullet and every plane,’ he warned.
Last month, Obama rejected the Arab leaders’ concerns over Iran, saying what threatens their governments is the increasing dissatisfaction inside their own countries, not the growing influence of Iran in the region. ‘The biggest threats that they Arab counties face may not be coming from Iran invading. It’s going to be from dissatisfaction inside their own countries,’ Obama said in an interview with the New York Times. The US president referred to internal problems in the Arab countries, including ‘alienated populations’ and ‘youth underemployment’.
Iran and the P5+1 group of countries – the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – reached a framework agreement on Tehran’s nuclear programme on April 2 in Switzerland. The two sides are working to finalise a deal by the end of June.
Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE joined Israel in opposing US efforts to reach an agreement with Iran over its nuclear energy programme.
• A US oil delegation is scheduled to travel to Tehran this week to hold talks with a number of Iranian petroleum ministry officials as well as oil industry contractors.
‘It is predicted that following the visit by the American delegation to Tehran and possible removal of sanctions against the oil industry, we will witness the presence of major international US oil and gas companies in Iran in future,’ Abbas Sheri Moqadam, Iran’s deputy petroleum minister was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
Meanwhile, the Iranian official said European and American companies have already voiced their preparedness to invest in several new petrochemical projects in Iran.
‘Negotiations have already started with companies from Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy,’ said Sheri-Moqaddam.
Managing Director of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) also reiterated that there is no limitation for American companies’ investment in the Iranian petrochemical industry. ‘There is no limitation for foreign investment in the country, because when these companies want to invest in Iran, they should first register an Iranian company which can operate in Iran without facing any limitation,’ NPC managing director noted.
Last month, the Iranian Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporations (AIPC) said the country’s petrochemical sector was capable of attracting USD 70 billion in domestic and foreign investment. AIPC said the value of half-finished projects in Iran’s petrochemical sector amounts to USD 70 billion, proving its ‘good potential’ to attract foreign investment.
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and European Union imposed sanctions on Iran to prevent other countries from investing in the country’s oil and gas industry. The sanctions were imposed under the pretext that there is a military aspect to Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme, an allegation Iran categorically rejected. However, in November 2014, the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 group of countries – the US, the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China – reached an interim agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme in the Swiss city of Geneva, which led to the relative loosening of sanctions against Iran, paving the way for further cooperation in various economic fields between Iran and other countries.
Iranian officials have already announced that they have special plans for boosting oil exports after the US-engineered sanctions against Iran are lifted as part of a possible final nuclear deal between Tehran and the P 5+1 group of countries.
Iran’s current oil production is estimated to be around 2.7 mb/d of which about 1 million barrels are exported – as required by the current regime of sanctions. Iran holds the world’s fourth-largest proven crude oil reserves and the second-largest natural gas reserves. Iran’s total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels, with about 140 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Heavy and extra-heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.
