Amman [Jordan], January 3 (ANI/Sputnik): Amman has condemned the seizure of a cargo ship sailing under the flag of the United Arab Emirates by the Houthi military, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Saudi Arabia said that Houthis had seized a cargo ship carrying medical equipment, which was running under the UAE flag, off the Yemeni coast in the south Red Sea.

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"The Jordanian Foreign Ministry strongly condemns the act of piracy and the Houthis capturing the vessel under the flag of the fraternal UAE, sailing last night in the vicinity of Al Hudaydah governorate," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry called such actions "terror threatening the freedom of civil navigation" and demanded the immediate release of the captured vessel.

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Yemen has been gripped by the conflict between the government forces led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi Ansar Allah movement for years. The situation was further complicated after Saudi Arabia joined the conflict on the side of Yemen's government in 2015, launching air, land and sea operations against the Islamist rebel movement.

Since February 2020, Houthis have been carrying out a large-scale operation against the Yemeni army in Marib to gain control over the province, which is also a political, military, and economic centre. (ANI/Sputnik)

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