Shaaban Bilal (Cairo)
Yesterday, the United Nations announced the purchase of a huge tank-ship to transport the abandoned Safer oil tanker off the coast of Yemen, thus avoiding the formation of an oil slick in the Red Sea. The UN body indicated that the United Nations Development Program was the one who negotiated the purchase deal for this ship – the tank, to which the abandoned Safer oil tanker, which exceeds one million barrels, will be transported.
Achim Steiner, director of the United Nations Development Program at UN headquarters in New York, announced a “major breakthrough”.
According to experts, time is running out because the Safer oil tanker, anchored off the strategic port of Hodeidah in western Yemen, could break at any moment.
And the oil carrier, which was built about 45 years ago, and constitutes a floating station for storage and disembarkation, has not been subject to any maintenance since 2015, while Yemen is mired in one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world due to the intransigence of the terrorist Houthi militia. The tanker ship, which was purchased from the shipping company «Yornav», may arrive at the site in early May, and pumping operations will begin immediately. The United Nations had launched a fund-raising campaign to finance this operation, with an expected total cost of $144 million, which would include, in a second phase, replacing Safer with a safer and more sustainable solution.
Yesterday, the Yemeni Minister of Oil and the Minister of Legal Affairs and Human Rights discussed with the United Nations Resident Representative for Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen, David Gresley, and his team, legal and logistical measures with a plan to deal with the file of the “Safer” oil tank.
The Minister of Oil, Saeed Al-Shamasi, affirmed the realization of all official authorities in the legitimate government of the importance of resolving the dilemma of the “Safer” tanker file and reaching advanced stages in addressing this problem, stressing the need for the process of withdrawing quantities of crude oil to take place in a safe manner and cover all aspects.
For his part, the Minister of Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Ahmed Arman, stated that the government deals positively with all issues related to the humanitarian situation, especially the “Safer” reservoir file, and is keen to enhance cooperation and coordination with United Nations offices in various interventions and projects, calling on the United Nations and the international community to practice More pressure on the “Houthi” militias to expedite the implementation of the UN plan and protect maritime navigation in Yemen and the region from the danger of the floating tank.
International environmental organizations and experts continue to warn of the continuation of the current situation of the Safer ship, stressing the need to defuse the potential disaster and start implementing the emergency rescue operation. Greenpeace International described the current situation of the Safer tanker as a time bomb, stressing that it is time for the United Nations Development Program to work to protect the Yemenis and the Red Sea from this major disaster, especially since nearly a year after the international organization called for funding rescue operations, it did not So far no equipment has been brought into the area to avert disaster.
Yemeni economic analyst Abdul Hameed Al-Masajdi said that the “Safer” file is one of the manifestations of the “Houthi” militia’s intransigence, which heralds an environmental catastrophe threatening the countries of the Red Sea basin and navigation, in addition to its serious economic impact on Yemen.
“Safer” carries 1.4 million barrels of crude oil, according to “Greenpeace”, which confirmed that any corrosion of its structure or leakage from it will result in a massive multi-faceted catastrophe that will destroy the livelihoods of Yemeni fishermen and endanger the Red Sea environment, as well as obstruct and disrupt international trade.
For his part, Yemeni political analyst Musa al-Maqtari stressed that the continuation of the current situation represents a danger to the region, and warns of an economic and environmental catastrophe, which the “Houthi” bears for the reasons for its occurrence, as it obstructs all international efforts to avoid it.
Al-Maqtari indicated to Al-Ittihad that whenever efforts came close to agreeing to save the situation, the Houthis hindered them with flimsy justifications, as they do with all peace initiatives and stopping war. He used to prevaricate and continue to threaten the security of the region and the world, disregarding the humanitarian and economic conditions that he bears. Yemenis because of his intransigence and continued to spread chaos.
The political analyst stressed that there is no solution to this crisis except by putting pressure on the “Houthis” and forcing it to accept the implementation of the international solutions that were approved to avoid the occurrence of the catastrophe, and this pressure has the United Nations and the Security Council its tools, and it only needs an international will.
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