Houthis evade UN in Safer tanker crisis

Nora Bandari

The Houthi militia is constantly exploiting Yemen’s problems to achieve its goals, which could result in major disasters in Yemen. But the Iranian-backed militia does not care, and to this end the Houthis have pursued a policy of evasion regarding the floating Safer oil tanker, seeking to extort Yemen’s legitimate government and the international community.

Houthi evasiveness

After the terrorist militia agreed on July 12 to allow UN inspectors access to the floating tanker at the Ras Isa port in Hodeidah governorate, which is at risk of exploding at any moment. But on July 24, the militia retracted its declaration regarding the UN inspection of the tanker, demanding the intervention of a third party not participating in the war to resolve this crisis. In a letter to UN Envoy Martin Griffiths, the Houthis claimed that the United Nations violated its agreement regarding the Safer tanker.

Since the Houthi coup began in September 2014, the militia has seized roughly 1.2 million barrels of crude oil in the tanker at Ras Isa, threatening an environmental disaster in the Red Sea. The tanker was constructed about 40 years ago and has become worn out and eroded, and experts expect the ship to leak, especially with the high temperatures during the summer months.

UN sources announced in press statements that the militia’s request for third-party interference regarding the tanker comes with the aim of obtaining concessions unrelated to the ship, such as the mechanism of importing oil derivatives. Therefore, the Houthis are using Safer as a card to pressure the UN envoy and the Yemeni government. However, the United Nations seeks to resolve the tanker issue with international will and seeks visas to be issued to the international team that will examine the Safer tanker.

Political and economic goals

Yemeni political analyst Mahmoud al-Taher explained to the Reference that the Houthis have a policy of evasion in order to gain more time to achieve its political, economic and military goals and to extort the international community. This is the result of the policy of flexibility in which the Yemeni government, the Arab coalition, and the United Nations deal with the militia.

The Houthis are seeking to take possession of the tanker’s oil by pressuring the United Nations and the Yemeni government, Taher pointed out. Before the UN Security Council held a meeting about the tanker, which is viewed as a time bomb in the Red Sea, the Houthis received advice from Griffiths to announce their acceptance of an international team to inspect the tanker in order to reduce the anger of the international community so that no binding decisions would come out of it, which would have been a fatal blow to the militia. But the Houthis reversed their decision within hours after the meeting.

Taher requested that the Arab coalition forces and the Yemeni government realize the danger of the militia’s evasiveness and put an end to its methods, asserting that this will flip the situation, allowing Yemen to avoid more wars and turmoil in the region, as well as saving Red Sea countries from the threat of environmental pollution posed by the Safer oil tanker.