Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group fired missiles and drones at Saudi energy and water desalination facilities, which oil firm Saudi Aramco said on Sunday (March 20) did not impact supplies or cause casualties.
Yehia Sarie, a spokesman for Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, said the rebels had launched “a wide and large military operation into the depth of Saudi Arabia” on Sunday, firing ballistic missiles and bomb-laden drones toward Saudi Aramco facilities and other “sensitive targets” in the country.
He described the assault as retaliation for the Saudi-led “aggression and blockade” that has turned much of Yemen into a wasteland.
The salvo also came as Saudi Arabia’s state-backed oil giant Aramco announced that its profits surged 124 per cent in 2021 to $110 billion, a jump fueled by renewed anxieties about global supply shortages and soaring oil prices.
Aramco, also known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., released its earnings report after weeks of intense volatility in energy markets triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Punitive sanctions on Russia, among the world’s largest exporters of crude and petroleum products, have added turmoil to an already-tight energy market.
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Aramco CEO Amin Nasser told a call about the company’s earnings on Sunday: “There was … a number of attacks early in the morning at our facilities. And thankfully there were no injuries or fatalities and no impact to the company’s supply to its customers.”
The international oil benchmark Brent crude hovered over $107 on Sunday after nearly touching a peak of $140 earlier this month. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have so far resisted Western appeals to increase oil production to offset the loss of Russian oil as gasoline prices skyrocket.
Earlier this week, the Houthis rejected an invitation from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to attend talks on the Yemen conflict, to be held in Riyadh from March 29.
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The Saudi-based Gulf Cooperation Council said it invited Yemen’s warring sides for talks in Riyadh aimed at ending the war, an offer dismissed out of hand by the Houthis, who demanded that negotiations take place in a “neutral” country.
Peace talks have floundered since the Houthis have tried to capture oil-rich Marib, one of the last remaining strongholds of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government in the country’s north.
Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition in Yemen in support of the internationally recognized government, which has been engaged in a bloody conflict against the Huthis since mid-2014.
The war has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, directly or indirectly, and displaced millions, in what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
On Wednesday, the UN voiced disappointment after a donors’ conference raised $1.3 billion, far short of the $4.27 billion target.
Huthi rebels often target airports and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest oil exporters, against the backdrop of the kingdom’s leadership of the military coalition against them.
(With inputs from agencies)
