The United Nations said on Tuesday that it had indefinitely delayed an expedition to avoid an ecological disaster for a crippled Yemeni oil tanker with about 48 million gallons of oil, citing what the organization called the Youth Houthi insurgents’ failure to guarantee the safety of the rescue team in writing.
The announcement came weeks after the team was due to start technical operations aboard the tanker FSO Safer, which has been anchored off the Red Sea coast of Yemen for many years. The 1,188-foot vessel is considered by experts in the marine environment to be a floating bomb, within easy reach of the shooting war between the Houthis and the Saudi coalition of Arab states trying to defeat them in a protracted war in Yemen.
After many months, the Houthis granted the United Nations formal permission in November to carry out a rescue operation for Safer, which has basically been used as a storage vessel and contains four times as much oil as was spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. in Alaska. The vessel’s rusty hull and lack of maintenance only increased the risk of leakage.
Stéphane Dujarric, the UN’s chief spokesman, said the organization had committed $ 3.35 million to acquire the necessary equipment and personnel and asked the Houthis to provide a letter with security guarantees so that it could rent service ships. The operation will require emptying the Safer tanks before being methodically dismantled and scrapped.
“We regret that, to date, we have not received a response to our multiple requests for this letter, the failure of which would increase the cost of the mission by hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Mr Dujarric in a statement.
“We are also very concerned about indications that the de facto authorities in Houthi are considering a ‘review’ of their formal approval of the mission to be deployed,” he said. “Houthi officials advised the UN to stop some preparations pending the outcome of this process, which would create further delays for the mission”
As a result, Mr. Dujarric said, “the timeline for implementing the mission remains uncertain and dependent on the ongoing facilitation of all stakeholders involved.”
There was no immediate comment from the Houthis, who remain in control of much of Yemen, despite the Saudi-led military campaign that began nearly six years ago.
The UN announcement came less than a month after the Trump administration, in one of its final acts, declared the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization. This designation means that individuals and companies doing business with the United States can face major penalties under American law if they contact the Houthis.
Although the United Nations and other humanitarian groups have received exemptions, the designation has been widely criticized as a new impediment to providing assistance to the 30 million people in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world. Eighty percent of the population needs emergency aid, the UN said, and the threat of hunger has increased.
Biden government officials have indicated that they are reviewing the designation.