Yemeni gov't warns against massive oil spill in Red Sea
The Yemeni government on Monday renewed its warning
of the possible occurrence of a massive oil spill in the Red Sea as a result of
the Houthis' insistence on blocking maintenance teams from checking and
repairing a government-owned oil tanker carrying over a million of oil barrels
and stranded near Hodeida port city for over four years now.
Posting on Twitter, the Yemeni cabinet said that the
tanker is docked at Ras Issa port, north Hodeida, that is still under the
Houthis’ control.
Leaving the oil tanker stranded in this way and for
so long will lead to a massive oil spill that will certainly cause an
environmental disaster in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, it cautioned.
Moreover, marine species of countries around the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden are
also at severe risk if the problem remains unresolved, it said.
It added that the UN has failed so far to exercise
pressures on the Houthis to allow a technical check and repairs of the oil
tanker that has not undergone any service since more than four years ago.
“The oil spill has already begun due to cracks
caused by erosion in the storage tank of the long-neglected vessel. This is
going to cause a disaster four times worse than the Exxon Valdez oil spill in
1989 in Alaska of the United States,” the government said in a video statement
published on its twitter account.
In May of this year, the Houthis banned a UN
technical team that was sent to check the tanker, according to the government.
