UAE Donates 40,000 Tonnes Diesel To Yemen

UAE Donates 40,000 Tonnes Diesel To Yemen

A Yemeni minister said in mid-July that the UAE had pledged 3 million barrels of crude oil to Yemen.

July 28, 2011 9:16 by Reuters

The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday it will donate 40,000 tonnes of diesel to Yemen, which faces a fuel crisis due to attacks on a pipeline during widespread political unrest, the UAE’s state news agency WAM reported.

The agency gave no date for the delivery of the fuel, the latest aid pledge by Gulf states to their impoverished Arabian Peninsula neighbour.

A Yemeni minister said in mid-July that the UAE had pledged 3 million barrels of crude oil to Yemen.

Saudi Arabia last month donated 3 million barrels of crude to Yemen and several deliveries have already been made to a refinery in the southern port city of Aden to help ease fuel shortages.

A blast on the small producer’s main pipeline in March, for which angry tribesmen were suspected, stopped the flow of crude to the refinery until the line was repaired earlier this month.

Yemen is in the midst of a political crisis after six months of demonstrations against the three-decade rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment following a June assassination attempt. (Reporting by Firouz Sedarat)