Arab environment ministers will meet on Monday at Saudi Arabia’s request to address Yemen’s Safer oil tanker crisis.
The environment ministers of Arab League states will meet at an extraordinary virtual meeting to underscore the need to find the necessary solution to avert an environment disaster due to the failure to repair the tanker.
The vessel, which is carrying a cargo of 1.1 million barrels of oil, has been moored off the coast of Ras Issa, in Yemen’s Hodeidah province, since 2015.
The eroding tanker is in desperate need of repair. Water has already started to leak into its engine room, prompting UN officials to warn of a major impending environmental disaster in the Red Sea, as well as the potential risk of a massive explosion caused by the buildup of gases in the storage tanks.
The Iran-backed Houthi militias that control Hodeidah have been obstructing UN efforts to send maintenance teams to the tanker, heedless of the crisis and looming danger
