Riyadh (Debriefer) - The Houthi group uses the floating storage and offloading (FSO) facility Safer as a weapon and political blackmailing card, the Yemeni caretaker government said Tuesday, calling for the UN Security Council to end persistent "hijacking of the tanker by militias that threaten Yemen and the world."
"We deplore the Houthi militias' continually dodging and denying the UN team access to Safer, and using the FSO as a weapon and political blackmailing card," Yemen's official foreign ministry tweeted.
The Houthis "obdurately put unattainable conditions, such as prolonging the life expectancy of an unfixable derelict reservoir, keeping Safer as a time bomb at its hands without caring for risky consequences, it added.
The FSO's cargo of crude needs to be immediately discharged to avoid an environmental, humanitarian disaster due to the facility's continuously deteriorating condition, the ministry warned.
While the official government "unconditionally approved and offered all facilitations for the UN team access, and agreed to have the [crude] revenues used in paying the civil servants' salaries across Yemen, the Houthis persistently refuse.
The Yemeni State-owned tanker of Safer stopped in March 2015 off the Yemeni seaport of Ras Isa, and has not been repaired since then, with corrosion making the FSO and its 1.4 million barrels of crude at risk of looming explosion.
The Houthi group has asked for US$ 100 million in order to give permits needed for specialized teams to reach and salvage the FSO, private sources told Debriefer.
"The Houthis seek for guarantees giving them the right to dispose of the oil's returns," the sources added, making the group in confrontation with an international community fearing the Safer's catastrophically widespread impacts.
