Yemen Coast Guard Stops the Tanker Nereida After a Call at Ras Isa
The OFAC-sanctioned product tanker is said to have entered the Houthi-held port without permits or UN inspection
The Yemen Coast Guard, which reports to the internationally recognised government, has stopped a product tanker after it made a delivery at the Houthi-controlled port of Ras Isa. The Houthis have not responded to the seizure, which is read as another move in an intensifying conflict between the movement and the Saudi-backed government.
The coast guard says the tanker entered Ras Isa without the necessary permits. Under the arrangements in place, a vessel calling there has to obtain approval and undergo inspection by the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism, an operation that has run for more than a decade to prevent arms and other banned materials reaching the Houthis.
The ship is the 35,994 dwt Nereida, reported to have been transiting without AIS transmissions. She has been under US OFAC sanctions since February 2025, when she was operating as Peterpaul, and has been linked to Iran in the past. The coast guard said the vessel briefly switched her AIS on after departing Ras Isa as she headed towards the Bab al-Mandeb, which is how the movement was picked up.
The pattern is familiar from other sanctioned tankers serving contested ports: a dark approach, a discharge outside the inspection regime, and a transponder that reappears once the ship is clear of the berth. What distinguishes this case is who acted on it. Interdiction in these waters has largely been the business of naval coalitions rather than the Yemeni coast guard itself.
The seizure comes as the Houthis have stepped up attacks on Saudi positions on both sides of the border, and continue to strike military positions and convoys bringing supplies into Yemen. That is in addition to the blockade of Saudi shipping interests in the Bab al-Mandeb and Red Sea that the movement declared in July, which has already produced attacks on Saudi-owned tonnage.
Ras Isa remains the principal oil terminal in Houthi-held territory, and traffic to it is the clearest measure of how much of the sanctions and inspection architecture around Yemen still functions in practice.
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