UNITED NATIONS, United States, Jan 28, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – A UN mission to
inspect a long-abandoned fuel tanker off the coast of Yemen, which threatens
to rupture and cause a massive oil spill, has been pushed to March, the body
said Wednesday.
“We’ve hit a few delays with international shipping that were beyond our
control and had some back and forth on signing documents, which has now been
resolved,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
“For now, we think we can get there by early March. From our side we are
doing everything possible to stick to that timeline and deploy the mission,”
he said.
In November, Yemen’s Huthi rebels confirmed they had given the green light
for a mission to assess the FSO Safer fuel tanker, which the UN initially
planned for late January or early February.
The Iran-backed Huthis — who control much of Yemen’s north after a war
that erupted in 2014 — had previously denied access.
Sticking to the new timeline “will depend on continuous facilitation by
the Ansar Allah authorities,” Dujarric said, using the official name of the
Huthi movement.
“We have communicated to the authorities our concern over several
logistical issues that remain pending,” he added. “We urgently need to
resolve these issues in the next several days to avoid missing the window for
timely deployment.”
The UN’s announcement comes just two days after new US President Joe
Biden’s administration suspended his country’s designation of the Huthis as a
terrorist group until February 26.
Dujarric said the UN was reviewing the situation concerning the US
terrorist designation “to ensure that non-staff contractors are not
inadvertently exposed to legal risks by participating in the mission.”
Humanitarian groups argue that they have no alternative but to deal with
the Huthis, who amount to a government in much of Yemen, including the
capital Sanaa.
The 45-year-old fuel vessel, abandoned near the western port of Hodeida
since 2015, has 1.1 million barrels of crude on board, and a rupture or
explosion would have disastrous environmental and humanitarian consequences.
Apart from corrosion to the aging vessel, essential work to curb explosive
gases in its storage tanks has been neglected.