World on brink of environmental catastrophe due to Houthi savagery

Ahmed Adel

The terrorist Houthi militia in Yemen is using the oil tanker Safer, which is located in the port of Ras Issa in Hodeidah governorate in the Red Sea, as a means to extort the international community. Since March 2018, the arrival of a United Nations team at the request of the Yemeni government has been obstructed to maintain the dilapidated ship, which raises world fears of a great environmental disaster.

Satellite images recently showed an oil spill from the floating Safer tanker, which carries about 1.1 million barrels of crude oil. The Houthis have refused to maintain it for five years, and any oil spill from it would lead to an environmental and economic disaster in Yemen and the region.

For its part, the United Nations expressed its hope that its experts would be able to travel to Yemen in early March 2021 to conduct a preliminary examination and maintenance process for Safer, noting that the UN mission, which was scheduled to start at the end of January 2021 and early February 2021, was delayed due to procedural problems.

“We have faced some delays in international shipping beyond our control, and there has also been a backlash in signing documents, and [these problems] have now been solved,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

“At the moment, we believe that we can go there [Yemen] by the beginning of March on our part. We are doing our best to abide by this timetable and start the mission,” he added.

“We have informed the authorities of our concerns about several logistical issues that are still pending. We urgently need to solve these problems in the coming days to avoid further delays,” Dujarric continued, stressing that adherence to the new schedule depends on the good will of the revolutionaries.

Militia obstructs

In the same context, the legitimate Yemeni government revealed on Thursday, January 28, that the Houthi militia, which was recently added to the US list of terrorist organizations, has retreated again from allowing a UN team to access the oil tanker, amid escalating warnings of crude leakage from it, which heralds the occurrence of a huge ecological disaster globally.

Yemeni Minister of Information Muammar al-Eryani said in statements reported by Al-Arabiya.net that the Iranian-backed Houthi militia is backing away from an agreement it signed with the United Nations to allow a UN team to board Safer and assess the technical situation of maintaining it or unloading its cargo of more than a million barrels of oil.

Eryani confirmed in a series of tweets that the Houthis’ repeated retreat from their obligations confirms that the oil tanker is being used to extort the international community and obtain political gains without regard for the warnings of the catastrophic environmental, economic and humanitarian risks resulting from the leak or if the tanker sank or exploded.

The Yemeni minister called on the international community and the UN Security Council to take a clear stance on evading the Houthi militia and to exert real pressure on the Houthis to prevent an imminent disaster, support the government’s efforts, and meet popular demands to designate it a terrorist organization.

Frequent warnings

The legitimate Yemeni government has repeatedly warned that time is running out due to the intransigence of the Houthi militia in dealing with the disaster of the Safer oil tanker before it occurs.

It stressed that it is waiting for the international community to put more pressure on the Houthis to allow the UN team to reach the ship and to start solving the problem by starting to empty the reservoir of oil as soon as possible, in anticipation of the occurrence of an environmental disaster in the event of its collapse for any reason.

Earlier last year, the Houthi militia announced its approval to allow the team to board the tanker in June 2020, before it backed away from its obligations.

For years, the United Nations has been trying to secure this ship and prevent a catastrophic oil leak, but it cannot do so due to the refusal of the Houthis, who control the port of Hodeidah.

Safer, which was manufactured 45 years ago and is being used as a floating storage platform, is loaded with about 1.1 million barrels of crude oil, valued at about $40 million.

The ship has not undergone any maintenance since 2015, which led to the erosion of its hull and the deterioration of its condition. On May 27, 2020, water leaked into the ship’s engine room until it was threatened at any moment with exploding or fission, which would lead to the leakage of its cargo in the Red Sea waters.