US Carrier, Warships Head to Yemen to Join Naval Blockade

Blockade Keeping Food Out, No Weapons Found

by Jason Ditz

Last week, the Pentagon joined in the naval blockade of Yemen slightly, with a US ship boarding a Panamanian cargo ship they accused of having Iranian weapons on board. They didn’t find any.

Now, the US is doubling down,adding the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier,along with several support ships, nominally to stop the weapons shipments that neither they, nor any of their allies, have been able to prove are happening.

The naval blockade of Yemen has so far had the impact of keeping humanitarian aid ships from docking several places, and has forced several food ships to park off coast, for weeks on end, awaiting assorted permissions to dock.

The desert-heavy nation of Yemen imports over 90% of its food, and that is almost entirely by ship. The naval blockade has slowed those shipments, and in many cases cargo companies are refusing to even attempt to deliver, since the navies involved in the blockade seem to leave them waiting off coast forever for deliveries that weren’t necessarily the highest paying to start with.

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/04/20/us-carrier-warships-head-to-yemen-to-join-naval-blockade/