For the record.
-RWYemeni Government warns of a looming Huge Oil Spill into the Red Sea due to Houthis’ obstruction to maintenance works of crude oil tanker carrying more than a million barrel of crude oil. pic.twitter.com/Aiz1qwNeFH— رئاسة مجلس الوزراء اليمني (@Yemen_PM) July 13, 2019
It's obviously the work of the Iranians, financed by the Russians, encouraged by the Chinese, and in cahoots with Mexican immigrants.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting coming from the Saudi-backed government in exile. The Saudis are imposing a naval blockade on Yemen, and they want to blame the Houthis for obstructing maintenance on the SAFER Floating Storage and Offloading terminal. They can just remove the blockade and the Yemenis (including the Houthis) can get the supplies that they need to maintain and operate the terminal safely. Now it's being used as a political bargaining chip by both sides.
ReplyDeleteThe Saudi proposed solution is to tow the oil tanker (from its current location in the Red Sea) to Bahrain (in the Persian Gulf) where they can safely repair it (hoping it doesn't leak on the way there?). That sounds alright, but to the cynical person, that's interpreted as stealing the vessel that allows Yemen's oil pipeline to reach the port, as well as the over 1 million barrels of oil currently inside it. That's 80 million dollars of oil, plus removing Yemen's future capability of exporting their oil. The Houthis want to sell the oil and pay the salaries of government employees (among other things, I imagine).
Here is a link from the Conflict and Environment Observatory which gives some background and seems to cover both sides of the story: https://ceobs.org/is-an-ageing-oil-tanker-threatening-an-environmental-disaster-off-the-coast-of-yemen/