P.T.O.C Yemen Center welcomes government measures to strengthen maritime oversight and protect Yemeni ports

P.T.O.C Yemen Center for Specialized Research and Studies welcomes the government measures issued by the Ministry of Transport on January 30, 2026, which strengthen the regulation of the entry of ships into Yemeni ports and emphasize verification, inspection and oversight mechanisms. The Center values this step as an important step to ensure compliance with maritime navigation regulations, and limit the exploitation of ports for illegal activities that negatively affect the national economy and the people’s livelihood. Yemeni.

The Center confirms that these measures - despite their delay, which contributed to strengthening the Houthis' military and technical arsenal - represent a response to the challenges associated with patterns of smuggling and navigational fraud in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, through the exploitation of some commercial ships and liquefied gas tankers to introduce dual-use weapons and technologies, which contributed to prolonging the war and exacerbating the economic and social conditions in the country.

These measures are a step consistent with the recommendations of the center’s report entitled “Ships under Suspicion” issued on January 28, which tracked the shadow fleet and suspicious ships, documenting repeated patterns of manipulation of automatic identification systems (AIS) for the purposes of camouflage and navigational fraud, which allowed the United Nations inspection mechanism to be bypassed, and the exploitation of registration and oversight loopholes, allowing some companies to operate outside legal frameworks to support activities. The Houthis.

P.T.O.C Yemen believes that strengthening the requirements for prior permits and operating automatic identification systems (AIS) throughout the itinerary constitutes a practical basis for controlling the movement of ships and reducing the exploitation of Yemeni ports for illegal activities, ensuring the transparency of data and information for state agencies and those concerned with the maritime sector, and contributing directly to supporting the Yemeni government’s efforts to enhance security and combat cross-border smuggling.

The Center confirms that the integration between independent research studies and government procedures reflects an awareness of the importance of monitoring, tracking and analyzing open data in supporting decision-making, and embodies an effective model of cooperation between specialized centers and competent official authorities, in a way that enhances the protection of Yemeni territorial waters and international shipping lines, directly limits the influence of terrorist groups and strengthens efforts to combat them technically.

The P.T.O.C Yemen Center announces its readiness to provide data and analysis to support the Yemeni government’s efforts in maritime surveillance, including implementing deep monitoring, tracking and verification, monitoring the movement of ships and containers, and analyzing complex maritime data, in addition to supporting any investigations into smuggling activities, suspicious shipments, and money laundering, which fully enhances the powers of state institutions and protects and preserves the interests and capabilities of the country.