Yemen’s Houthis grant UN inspectors access to aging oil tanker
Experts say the FSO Safer, a dilapidated vessel that contains more than a million barrels of light crude oil, is at risk of rupturing and spilling more oil than the Exxon Valdez.
The Houthi rebels have given the United Nations permission to inspect a dilapidated oil tanker moored off Yemen’s Red Sea coast that experts warn is a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe waiting to happen.
On Tuesday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters that the Houthi authorities had sent a letter “indicating their approval for the UN proposal for the planned expert mission to the tanker.”
“It represents an important step forward in this critical work,” Dujarric said.
The Houthis, who are fighting a Saudi-led military coalition and Yemen's internationally recognized government, seized the FSO Safer from the state-run oil company in 2015. The Iran-aligned group hasn't performed maintenance on the vessel since and they’ve repeatedly blocked UN efforts to send inspectors.
