Ministry of Interior: Saudi Enemy’s targeting of Mayun Island lighthouse is blatant attack on civilian facility

The Ministry of Interior condemned in the strongest terms the Saudi enemy’s targeting today of the marine lighthouse on Mayun Island, known as the Bab al-Mandab lighthouse, in a blatant attack targeting a vital civilian facility of strategic and international importance, and threatening the safety of maritime navigation in one of the most important waterways in the world.

In a statement issued by it, the Ministry of Interior affirmed that targeting the lighthouse—which is over 170 years old, supervised by the Coast Guard Authority, and plays a pivotal role in guiding ships during navigation, especially at night—represents an attack on a civilian facility with a navigational and humanitarian function, whose importance transcends Yemen’s borders to include the safety of ships and sailors and the movement of international trade passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

It held international maritime organizations and bodies concerned with navigational safety legally, humanitarianly, and morally responsible, calling for a clear and firm stance toward this attack, its explicit condemnation, and efforts to protect civilian maritime facilities and ensure they are not targeted or endangered—away from double standards and the policy of silence toward the violations committed by the Saudi enemy that affect international navigation security.

The statement denounced the efforts of the Saudi enemy, and the American behind it, aimed at militarizing the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and turning this vital maritime passage into an arena for military positioning, conflict, and the imposition of hegemony—which constitutes a threat to Yemen’s sovereignty and security, the interests of the region’s peoples, the freedom of international navigation, and the stability of global trade movement.

The Ministry of Interior warned that targeting civilian maritime facilities and escalating military activities around straits and strategic maritime passages would increase the risks facing ships and sailors, threaten the security of international trade and supply lines, and open the door to dangerous repercussions whose effects are not limited to Yemen and the region, but extend to the global economy and maritime navigation security as a whole.

It renewed the affirmation that the protection of civilian facilities and maritime utilities, and ensuring the safety of ships and sailors and the security of the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, is not achieved through militarization, attacks, and attempts to impose influence, but through respecting Yemen’s sovereignty over its islands and ports and its land and maritime borders, and adhering to international rules and norms regulating maritime navigation.

The Ministry called on the international community and maritime organizations to assume their responsibilities toward these practices and take practical stances and measures to prevent their recurrence.