The United Nations said on Tuesday that it had indefinitely delayed an expedition around an ecological disaster of a paralyzed Yemeni tanker containing about 48 million liters of oil, citing what the organization called a failure of Yemen’s Houthi insurgents. to guarantee the safety of the salvage team in writing.
The announcement came weeks after the team was supposed to start technical operations aboard the tanker, the FSO Safer, which has been moored on Yemen’s Red Sea coast for years. The 1,188-foot vessel is considered by maritime environmentalists to be a driving bomb, within easy reach of the shooting war between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states trying to defeat them in a protracted war in Yemen.
After many months, the Houthis formally granted the United Nations permission in November to undertake a Safer salvage operation, which was basically used as a storage vessel and contained four times the oil spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. The rusting hull of the vessel and the lack of maintenance only caused the risks of leakage.
UN chief spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the organization had committed $ 3.35 million to provide the necessary equipment and personnel, and requested that the Houthi provide a letter with security assurances so that they could hire service vessels. Before operation, the Safer’s tanks must be emptied before being methodically demolished and scrapped.
“We regret that to date we have not received a response to our multiple requests for this letter. The lack of this would increase the cost of the mission by hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said. Dujarric said in a statement.
“We are also very concerned about indications that the Houthi authorities are de facto considering an ‘overview’ of their formal approval of the mission to deploy,” he said. “Houthi officials have advised the UN to suspend certain preparations pending the outcome of such a process, which would delay the mission.”
As a result, Mr. Dujarric said: “The timeline for the deployment of the mission remains uncertain and dependent on the continued facilitation of all involved.”
There was no immediate comment from the Houthis, who remain in control of large parts of Yemen, despite a Saudi-led military campaign that began almost 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. The designation means that individuals and businesses doing business with the United States could face large fines under U.S. law if they liaise with the Houthi.
Although the United Nations and other humanitarian groups have been released, the designation has been widely criticized as a new obstacle to aid to the 30 million people in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world. Eighty percent of the population needs first aid, the UN said, and the threat of famine has increased.
Biden administration officials have indicated they are reviewing the designation.