UN Moving Closer To Sending Repair Mission To Decaying Tanker In Yemen - Spokesman

The United Nations believes it is moving closer to deploying a technical mission to the decaying Safer oil tanker moored off the Yemen coast, following the recent discussions with the Houthi authorities who are to give the green light to access the vessel, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said in a press briefing on Friday

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th April, 2021) The United Nations believes it is moving closer to deploying a technical mission to the decaying Safer oil tanker moored off the Yemen coast, following the recent discussions with the Houthi authorities who are to give the green light to access the vessel, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said in a press briefing on Friday.

"We're making every effort to resolve all pending logistical issues and security arrangements," Haq said. "We've had some constructive discussions with the de-facto authorities in Sanaa this week, and are cautiously optimistic that we're moving closer to a solution."

Haq explained that once the United Nations resolves all logistical arrangements, it will need some time to book vessels for the repair mission, confirm personnel and deploy equipment.

"The sooner we get everything agreed, the sooner this work can start," he said.

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.

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.