The Engineering of Sovereign Strangulation: How Saudi Arabia Turned Yemeni Wealth into a Weapon of Starvation to Devastate Yemenis
The economic war waged on Yemen was not merely a parallel to military operations; it was the most lethal and meticulously planned front. Riyadh adopted a strategy of “financial strangulation” as a substitute for its failure to achieve a decisive military victory. Transforming oil and gas fields from levers of national sovereignty into “geopolitical bargaining chips” reflects a hostile vision aimed at dismantling the nascent Yemeni state in Sana’a by creating a forced funding gap that paralyzes institutions’ ability to perform their vital functions. This “geo-economic” engineering did not stop at plundering resources; it also worked to reshape the Yemeni social contract under the weight of planned deprivation. The concept of sovereignty was transformed from a practical reality on the ground into a meaningless slogan due to deliberate financial subjugation, turning bread and currency into deadly weapons designed to break the will to resist national resistance.
The decision to relocate the functions of the Central Bank of Yemen in 2016 was not a regulatory measure, as the instruments of aggression claimed, but rather a major “financial trap” that legitimized the systematic plundering of sovereign wealth. This decision severed natural resources from the national economic cycle and diverted them to banking channels under the direct control of the Saudi Special Committee. Through this forced isolation, a distorted economic reality was created, intended to force the Yemeni people to link their political choices to the deprivation of their resources, in a desperate attempt to impose a “living handout” that would return Yemen to the fold of regional tutelage. This “soft aggression” represents the culmination of the battle, where hard currency is drained from the country and hoarded abroad to ensure the state remains in a state of financial “clinical death.” This explains the Saudi insistence on keeping the issue of resources separate from any humanitarian agreements that might alleviate the suffering of public sector employees.
The Forced Path of Wealth: Unraveling the “Banking Piracy”
The stark reality of this plundering crime becomes clear when tracing the “financial trail” of Yemeni crude oil sales. Confessions from key figures in the mercenary regime reveal that these revenues never reach the Yemeni public treasury, but rather are deposited in accounts at the Saudi National Bank in Riyadh. Perhaps the most damning testimony comes from Abdul Aziz Jubari, the deputy speaker of the mercenary parliament, who openly confirmed that their government has no control whatsoever over financial decisions or the revenues from the country’s wealth. He disclosed that every penny of oil and gas sales is transferred directly to Saudi Arabia, while their government remains merely an “employee” begging for crumbs of operational budgets from the Saudi Special Committee. This admission undermines the legitimacy of any financial actions undertaken by these authorities and confirms that Yemeni financial sovereignty has been nationalized for the benefit of the Saudi treasury. This has made Yemeni economic decision-making hostage to Saudi officers who manage the “Yemeni oil” account as an intelligence operation, not as a matter of bilateral relations.
The profound implications of this financial seizure become clear when analyzing the criminal figures associated with the movement of giant tankers that have transformed into a legitimate piracy fleet. Navigational reports and field data have documented the tanker Apolitares plundering, in a single shipment, more than 2.2 million barrels of Masila crude oil, valued at over $270 million. It was followed by tankers such as the Seavelvet, Nissos KEA, and Saras. These figures are not mere statistics; they are incriminating evidence proving that the total amount of hard currency looted between 2018 and 2022 exceeded $14 billion. This sum alone would have been sufficient to pay the salaries of all state employees for many years, while also providing a cash reserve to prevent the collapse of the Yemeni rial. However, due to Saudi piracy, this wealth has been transformed from a lifeline into a tool of strangulation. Dollars are hoarded in Riyadh to inflate the value of the Saudi riyal, while the Yemeni rial is left to face a manufactured collapse in the occupied territories.
Furthermore, the insistence on depositing revenues into the Saudi National Bank constitutes a blatant violation of the Yemeni constitution, which stipulates that sovereign revenues be deposited in the Central Bank of Yemen. This effectively makes Riyadh a direct partner in international money laundering and the systematic plundering of national resources. This forced link between Yemeni production and the Saudi bank grants Riyadh a veto over life in Yemen; it can halt salaries, prevent food imports, or even paralyze the health sector with a single click from a National Bank employee. This reality has produced absolute dependency, transforming the so-called legitimate government into a mere legal puppet, legitimizing the theft of wealth in exchange for its members remaining in Riyadh hotels. This represents the most despicable political and historical bargain Yemen has witnessed, where the rights of millions of starving people are sold for the luxury of a few mercenaries.
In conclusion, this mechanism was not a product of the chaos of war, but rather a carefully designed financial trap from the very beginning of the Central Bank’s relocation. Saudi Arabia understood that controlling crude oil meant controlling Yemeni sovereignty. Therefore, continuing this forced flow of funds meant perpetuating the war by other means, as the wealth of the Yemeni people was used to finance their killing and starvation. This explains Saudi Arabia’s categorical rejection of any proposals to open an intermediary account in a neutral country for salary payments, because doing so would simply mean the loss of Riyadh’s strongest bargaining chip against Yemeni national resistance.
The “Currency War” and the Repercussions of Plunder on Empty Stomachs
The full picture of the crime is not complete with talk of plundering crude oil alone. It is essential to delve into the devastating effects this plunder has had on the purchasing power of Yemeni citizens, which manifested itself most brutally in the “currency war” and the printing of 5.3 trillion riyals of counterfeit currency. The relationship between plundering oil revenues and printing counterfeit riyals is directly proportional; the more Saudi Arabia withholds oil revenues, the more the war intensifies.