Saudi Arabia proposes own port for aid to Yemen

Published on Saturday, 23 September , 2017 464 Views

Saudi News

#Hodeida port #Jizan port #Red Sea

Saudi Arabia on Thursday proposed that vital food and medicine relief aid for Yemen be shipped through the country’s Jizan port on the Red Sea to avoid Yemen’s rebel-controlled Hodeida port.

Dr Abdullah al-Rabeeah, head of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, said Huthi rebel militia are holding up relief materials in Hodeidah, preventing them from getting to Yemenis suffering after three years of war.

Marriott CEO says success isn’t guaranteed, but optimistic on balance in KSA

Vast wealth and the promise of dramatic change make for cautious optimism concerning Saudi Arabia, the chief executive…

Instead, he said, they are mainly letting through building materials, cars and trucks. When they do allow a cargo of food or medical supplies through, he said the militia controlling the port are charging relief agencies as much as $100,000 to offload a vessel.

Jizan, located about 260 kilometers (160 miles) north of Hodeidah, “is far closer to Saada and the north (of Yemen) than Hodeidah,” Rabeeah told journalists in Washington.

“Although we would like to see Hodeidah to full capacity, until that happens we should use the maximum available ports, whether they are from Yemen, from Saudi Arabia, or land ports.”

On Tuesday a coalition spokesman said that 15 cargo ships carrying food and fuel and authorised by the coalition to enter the port were still waiting to dock due to stalling by the rebels.

Putting the shipments through a Saudi port like Jizan would give Riyadh more control over the flow of aid to Yemen.

That could spur distrust among aid agencies who blame Saudi bombing of Yemen for much of the humanitarian challenge in the country.

Yemen is entering its fourth year of fighting between the Huthi rebels who control the capital and a Saudi-led coalition.

Millions of Yemenis have been displaced by the fighting which has pushed the impoverished country to the brink of famine.

Amid criticisms that the Saudi-led coalition are guilty of indiscriminate bombing of Yemen targets, hitting schools and hospitals as well as Huthi military targets, Rabeeah acknowledged that “mistakes are made.”

However, he said the coalition is now honoring a total of 43,000 “non-strike-zones” identified by United Nations organizations and non-governmental relief groups.

“We have worked very closely with our humanitarian agencies and also with the coalition forces to ensure that civilian targets, schools and hospitals, are well-protected by non-strike zones.”

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/

Centro Olaya by Rotana Hotel unveiled in Riyadh

CENTRO Olaya, the sixth by Rotana Hotel in Saudi Arabia and the third in Riyadh, was inaugurated on…

Keywords: Hodeida port Jizan port Red Sea
Category Saudi News | 2017/09/23 latest update at 3:00 AM
Source : | Photocredit :

465 Views
Comments Add comment

Saudi Arabia vs Dubai could be the...

PIF-backed Dubai car auction site to open...

Uber Eats expands to Makkah, Madinah

The editorial staff of Saudi Arabia Today would like to give all of its readers from Gulf and Saudi Arabia and the whole world the opportunity to participate actively in the development of the website! If you have something interesting, fun, scandalous - just something worth to be seen from more people. Capture it and share it in the Saudi Arabia Today with a short text.

Do you have information you want to reach our readers?

Send article/s

You can subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter and Google pages or use our RSS feed channel to always read the most important news about Saudi Arabia, the Gulf and the world.