The Yemeni government has accused Iranian fishermen of making illegal catches off Yemen’s Socotra archipelago and harassing local crews.
Dozens of Iranian boats were allegedly spotted crossing into Yemeni waters 9 miles west of Socotra in the latest of a series of violations of fishing rights.
The Iranian vessels illegally fish and continuously violate Yemeni waters, said Fahd Kafayn, Yemen’s minister of fishery, on Facebook.
Yemen has long accused the Iranians of overfishing its waters, harrying Yemeni fishermen, and transferring shipments of advanced weapons to the Iran-backed Houthis.
Since 2015, when the Yemeni coastguard authority crumbled during the early days of Houthi military expansion in the country, the internationally recognized government has been calling for global pressure over the maritime issues.
In 2016, Yemen seized 107 Iranian fishermen on dozens of boats while illegally operating near the island of Socotra.