YEMEN BACK IN OIL EXPORT BUSINESS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE START OF CIVIL WAR

▶ Shabwa shipment hoped to be only the beginning as ministry works to resume production in other provinces

Yemen has exported its first shipment of crude oil since civil war broke out in 2015, a milestone for the Arab world’s poorest country.

The 500,000 barrels of crude from resumed production in the Aqla area of Shabwa were shipped from the Rezum oil terminal in the southern province, the Ministry of Oil and Minerals said.

The shipment was awarded to a Chinese petroleum company after a global tender in which 35 companies took part, the ministry told the stateowned Saba news agency on Wednesday.

It said Shabwa and other oil-producing provinces would receive 20 per cent of the revenue from crude they produced, maintaining a policy introduced by President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi after he was elected in 2012.

It is trying to restart production in the remaining oil blocks in Shabwa, Hadramawt and Marib provinces, the secretary to the oil minister told The National.

The government has re-established control in these provinces with the help of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition, which intervened in the war at Mr Hadi’s request in March 2015. Large areas of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, remain under the control of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

New talks to end the war will be held in the Swiss city of Geneva next month, diplomatic sources told the Asharq Al Awsat newspaper. The UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, was expected to announce the details to the Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York on Thursday.

Mr Griffiths briefed ambassadors of the Arab Coalition, which includes the UAE, on Thursday morning before reporting to the council.

Sources said the talks would last from three to four days and would take a different approach to those held under the previous UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

The first round of peace talks was held in Geneva in 2015.

The last attempt to negotiate an end to the conflict was hosted by Kuwait in 2016.

Mr Griffiths, who took up his post in March, launched a frantic round of diplomacy after the Arab Coalition and Yemeni government launched an offensive to retake the port city of Hodeidah in June.

The coalition halted the campaign in early July to allow the UN envoy to negotiate a rebel withdrawal from the city and port, which is the main entry point for aid and food shipments to Yemen.

The coalition has insisted on a full rebel withdrawal from the city, while Mr Griffiths has said the Houthis have offered only to hand over the port to partial UN control.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni government is reportedly preparing to seek prosecution of Houthi leaders for war crimes.

A Justice Ministry spokesman told Asharq Al Awsat this would include Houthi leader Abdel Malik Al Houthi and the rebels’ military commander, Abd Al Khaliq Al Houthi.

“All-encompassing legal paperwork and documentation needed to pursue them at an international level are being prepared,” ministry spokesman Faisal Al Majidi told the newspaper.

Oil-producing provinces will receive 20 per cent of revenue from crude they produce, the Ministry of Oil and Minerals said