Yemen not to transfer oil revenues to Saudis
Sana’a has rejected a proposal by Riyadh to transfer oil and gas revenues to the Saudi National Bank in return for the kingdom to pay public sector wages in Yemen.
Mahdi al-Mashat, the head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, held the United States responsible for the hurdles created by Saudi Arabia in paying salaries of civil servants in the areas controlled by the Ansarullah movement, Press TV quoted Yemen’s al-Masirah television network as reporting on Sunday.
“What the Saudis want is to loot our oil wealth, transfer it to the Saudi National Bank, and give charity money to our employees, something that is dismissed,” he said.
“We will try to pay the salaries in the future and we will win them back from the enemy.”
Mashat also urged Washington not to make enemies among more than 10 million Yemeni public sector workers by preventing the payment of their wages.
Earlier, Riyadh proposed to pay the salaries of Yemeni civil servants for one year in Saudi Riyals in exchange for the extension of a ceasefire and the resumption of Yemeni oil exports.
Yemen, however, wants to restore control over its own resources, saying the country’s oil revenues are enough to pay the salaries of all public sector workers.
Saudi Arabia launched a devastating war on Yemen in March 2015. It also imposed the most severe siege on Yemen, weakening the country’s economy.
Riyadh sought to crush Ansarullah and reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, but it failed to do achieve its objective.