The Iran-backed Houthi militias have advised the United Nations to pause preparations to deploy a team to assess a decaying oil tanker threatening to spill 1.1 million barrels of crude oil off the war-torn country’s coast, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.
The tanker Safer has been stranded off Yemen’s Red Sea oil terminal of Ras Issa for more than five years, and UN officials have warned it could spill four times as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.
Houthi authorities gave long-awaited approval in November for a visit to assess the tanker. A UN team, which includes a private company contracted by the world body to do the work, was aiming to travel to the tanker early next month.
But UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that time line was now uncertain amid UN concerns about signals from the Houthis that they are considering a “review” of their formal approval of the tanker mission.
“Houthi officials have advised the UN to pause certain preparations pending the outcome of such process, which would create further delays to the mission,” he said in a statement.
He said the United Nations had so far spent $3.35 million on preparing for the mission. The world body also has to lease a technically equipped vessel, but needs a letter from the Houthis with security assurances.
“We regret that, to date, we have not received a response to our multiple requests for this letter, the lack of which would increase the cost of the mission by hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Dujarric said.
Last month, former US President Donald Trump’s administration designated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization. The United Nations is also reviewing whether that could affect the tanker mission.
