Yemen Warns Houthi Stance On Safer Oil Tanker Could Cause Catastrophe - Foreign Minister

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th May, 2021) The situation with the Safer oil tanker could cause a humanitarian catastrophe if the Houthi rebels maintain their current stance on the issue, Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Bin Mubarak said on Wednesday after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Sochi.

"Because of the irresponsible attitude of the Houthi militia toward this problem and their refusal to allow the UN to assess the situation, a huge humanitarian and ecological disaster could occur at any moment," Ahmed Bin Mubarak said at a joint press conference.

The United Nations has been trying to get on board the tanker to make initial repairs and conduct an overall assessment since late January. However, due to numerous bureaucratic and logistical impediments, the deployment on the vessel loaded with over one million barrels of oil was postponed several times.

In April, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said that the UN had the impression that it was moving closer to deploying a technical mission to the decaying Safer oil tanker moored off the Yemeni coast, following recent discussions with the Houthi authorities who are to give the green light to access the vessel.

Safer has been anchored off Yemen's Red Sea coast since 2015. In addition to nearing a collapse of its structure and causing a major humanitarian catastrophe around the port city of Al-Hudaydah, it is also vulnerable to being hit by firearms and exploding, amid the ongoing internal conflict between Yemeni government forces and the Houthi movement.