Yemen sheikh allows oil pipeline repairs

A Yemeni sheikh whose tribe attacked an oil pipeline in the eastern province of Marib, contributing to a major fuel shortage, said on Tuesday he will permit the pipeline to be repaired. "We will permit the oil company to come to the area and repair the pipeline to lessen the oil crisis," Sheikh Ali Jaber al-Shabwani told AFP, adding, however, that he was not responsible for the safety of the repair teams. Sheikh Ali's son Jaber, who was the deputy governor of Marib, was accidentally killed along with four bodyguards in a government air strike in May 2010 that security sources said targeted a wanted Al-Qaeda suspect. Al-Shabwan tribesmen then attacked the pipeline that passed over their land in Marib in revenge, and tensions have been high in the area since. The damage to the pipeline, which carries about three million barrels of crude per month, contributed to a major fuel shortage worsened by a months-long standoff between supporters and opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose ouster demonstrators have been demanding since January.