Washington Fears Environmental Disaster over Safer Tanker
Arab World
Washington - Muath Alamri
The United States stressed that it refuses the politicization of the Safer tanker crisis in Yemen. The eroding tanker is moored off the coast of Yemen and is believed to be loaded with more than a million barrels of crude oil. The vessel has been stranded off the coast since 2015 and the Iran-backed Houthi militias have been barring a United Nations team access to assess its condition, threatening an environmental disaster in the Red Sea if it remains unrepaired. A State Department spokesman told Asharq Al-Awsat that US envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, had discussed during his recent fourth tour of the Gulf the Safer crisis and the potential oil leak that may result from it. The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the envoy underlined the need for the UN team to be allowed to access the vessel and repair it. Washington continues to support UN efforts to assess and repair the tanker without delay, he continued, revealing that it was ready to dispatch a team of its own to carry out the mission. He lamented, however, that the Houthi excuses and obstacles are hampering the repair efforts. By politicizing the tanker, the Houthis are threatening to cause more pain to the Yemeni people and a massive environmental disaster in the region, he warned. Several reports and studies have warned that keeping the tanker stranded would result in a massive regional environmental and humanitarian disaster. The disaster will not only affect the people of Yemen, but people residing in the Red Sea countries. Eurekalert had released a report by a research team from the US, Germany and Israel that predicted how the oil from Safer would leak into the Red Sea. The paper reveals a computer model of how the oil will disperse if a major leak begins this winter. The model shows that the oil will reach much further if the spill occurs now rather than in summer, due to the typical winter currents in that region of the Red Sea. A spill now will cause much broader and more extensive devastation as a result. Last week, Lenderking accused Iran of supporting the Houthis to prolong the war in Yemen. “Iran’s support to the Houthis is quite significant, and it’s lethal,” Lenderking told US lawmakers. He added that he has yet to see Iran play a constructive role in Yemen. He urged the international community to continue to pressure Tehran and the Houthis to reach a political settlement in Yemen and end the conflict, warning that the repeated Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia threaten American interests there. There are about 70,000 US citizens living in neighboring Saudi Arabia, Lenderking said, and “it is our greatest fear that Americans will be killed in a Houthi attack.”
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2941791/washington-fears-environmental-disaster-over-safer-tanker
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