![Nayef al-Hajraf, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), speaks during the 17th IISS Manama Dialogue in the Bahraini capital Manama on November 20, 2021 [MAZEN MAHDI/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/d2.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/GettyImages-1236680078-scaled-e1641380307633.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Nayef Al-Hajraf, yesterday met with Commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), Lieutenant-General Charles Cooper, to discuss ways of strengthening the security and safety of waterways and marine navigation in the region.
The meeting came after Yemen’s Houthis seized a UAE flagged- ship on Sunday evening near the port city of Hudaydah.
The GCC General Secretariat said in a statement that Al-Hajraf and Cooper discussed areas of joint cooperation and the importance of enhancing the security of waterways and ensuring freedom and safety of navigation in the Gulf.
On Monday, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis, Brigadier General Turki Al-Malki, said the cargo ship, the Rawabi, had been transporting a Saudi field hospital from Yemen’s Socotra Island in the Indian Ocean to Jizan in the south of the kingdom when the Houthis seized it.
Al-Malki said the cargo included ambulances, medical and communications equipment, tents, a field kitchen, and laundry, as well as technical and security support equipment.
READ: Arab states condemn Houthis’ seizure of UAE-flagged ship