Can a UN-coordinated Dutch-American plan defuse the ticking Safer ‘time bomb?’

The UN is racing to prevent oil-storage vessel FSO Safer, left, used by the Houthis as a bargaining chip, from sparking a catastrophic oil spill owing to leakage or explosion. (AP/AFP)
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Updated 13 June 2022
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Can a UN-coordinated Dutch-American plan defuse the ticking Safer ‘time bomb?’

  • The objective is to raise $144 million, of which $80 million will pay for offloading the vessel’s cargo of oil
  • Time is of the essence if the plan, consisting of two simultaneous tracks, is to prove successful

JEDDAH: The saga of the Safer continues with an attempt by the UN to raise funds to salvage the stricken vessel that has been anchored close to Yemen’s Red Sea coast since 1988.

The plan is to raise $144 million, of which $80 million will pay for offloading the cargo of oil on board the Safer. To this end, the governments of the US and the Netherlands, represented by Dutch Ambassador to the US Andre Haspels, jointly hosted a meeting on Friday that was attended by Tim Lenderking, the US special envoy for Yemen, and representatives from the diplomatic community in Washington.

“We urge public and private donors to consider generous contributions to help prevent a leak, spill or explosion, whose effects would destroy livelihoods, tourism and commerce in one of the world’s vital shipping lanes,” a joint statement read, referring to the abandoned vessel.

The UN-coordinated plan’s objective is to avert an economic, humanitarian and environmental catastrophe that could affect not just Yemen, where 17 million people depend on humanitarian aid, but the wider region as well.

“The Safer is a ticking time bomb and it’s time to resolve the problem,” political analyst Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri told Arab News.

“The vessel has been lying around for seven years unattended. It is the international community’s responsibility to put pressure on the Houthis on all levels to resolve the many issues confronting Yemen and Yemenis, including the Safer dispute.”

The ship, decaying off the port of Ras Isa in the absence of any maintenance, is believed to contain 1.1 million barrels of oil — four times the amount that leaked into Alaska’s Prince William Sound as a result of the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989.

Commissioned in 1976 as an oil tanker and converted a decade later into a floating storage and offloading (FSO) facility, the Safer ceased production, offloading and maintenance in 2015 with the eruption of war and the capture of western Yemen by the Houthis.

The ship is currently moored about 4.8 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen’s Hodeidah governorate. Given the steady deterioration in its structural integrity, there is an imminent risk of an oil spill owing to leakage or explosion.




Damage to the Safer (above) has raised fears of an imminent oil spill owing to leakage or explosion. (AFP/File Photo)

In March, after years of on-again, off-again talks between the major parties concerned, the Iran-aligned Houthis apparently agreed to allow the UN to offload the oil stored in barrels on the Safer. Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, the head of the Houthis’ Supreme Revolutionary Committee, confirmed the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the UN via Twitter.

The UN-coordinated plan, which is backed by the Yemeni government, consists of two simultaneously operative tracks. The first involves the installation of a long-term replacement for the Safer within an 18-month period, while the second entails the transfer of the cargo of oil to a temporary vessel over a period of four months.

The UN intends to keep the Safer and the temporary vessel in place until all the oil is transferred to the permanent replacement vessel. Afterwards, the rusting vessel would be towed to a yard and sold for scrap.

In April, Lenderking, Dutch Ambassador to Yemen Peter Derrek Hoff and UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen David Gressly toured the region as part of a UN-led mission to raise awareness of the threat posed by the Safer and raise funds for the UN plan.

A month later, a scheme devised by Gressly to oversee the UN’s attempts to raise $80 million from donors began. So far, however, the world body has been able to raise only $40 million.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on the salvage plan.

INNUMBERS

* 181 million - Liters of oil stored in the decaying FSO Safer.

* 1.7 million - People in fishing industry in harm’s way in event of leak or explosion.

“If we do not receive sufficient funding urgently, the weather window to transfer the oil will close,” Auke Lootsma, resident representative of the UN Development Program in Yemen, said.

“By October, high winds and volatile currents make the operation more dangerous and increase the risk of the ship breaking up.”

A massive oil spill from the Safer would devastate fishing communities on the Red Sea coast and wreak havoc on the water, reefs and mangroves of the littoral states, notably Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and Yemen itself.

It would also lead to the disruption or even closure of the ports of Hodeidah and As Salif, which would greatly hinder commercial activity across Yemen and the country’s ability to receive humanitarian aid.

In any event, the cost of cleanup alone is expected to be $20 million.

“When the Houthis seized power in that part of Yemen in 2015, they took over the Safer but they lacked the know-how to maintain it,” Al-Shehri said. “Since then, they have been using the alarming structural state of the vessel as a bargaining chip, with the goal of grabbing the proceeds of the oil sold in the market or selling the oil in the black market for further gain.”




Representatives from Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan and Yemen sent a letter in 2020 addressed to the president of the Security Council, drawing attention to the risks the floating cargo posed to the region. (Reuters/File Photo)

He added: “With regard to the Safer, the Houthis will not agree to do the right thing easily, but with pressure they might. This would prevent a catastrophe whose repercussions would be felt thousands of miles away. The flow of humanitarian aid through the vital shipping lanes of the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait would be disrupted.”

Having said that, Al-Shehri cited two developments — the signing of the memorandum between the Houthis and the two-month ceasefire currently in force, the first nationwide truce since 2016 — as auguring well for the future of Yemen. In his opinion, the opening of the road to Taiz could help put an end to ongoing factional feuds and, with luck, even to the Houthi occupation.

“But to truly show their good intentions, the Houthis must cooperate with the international community and the legitimate government of Yemen plus its people and regional neighbors. They must also stop using the ship for political leverage,” he said.

“If the Houthis don’t show this spirit of cooperation, this would have dire consequences not only for Yemen but the entire region.”

Significantly, the UN ambassadors of Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen sent a letter in 2020 addressed to the president of the Security Council, drawing attention to the risks the floating cargo posed to the region and calling for immediate action to stave off two nightmare scenarios.




The external piping system of the FSO Safer and the hose failure that led to a spill, moored off Ras Issa port, Yemen. (AFP/File Photo)

The first would be the ecological disaster resulting from the spillage of 181 million liters into the marine life-rich Red Sea. The second would be the havoc caused by dark clouds of toxic gases released by an explosion. In addition to damage to the health of some 3 million people in Hodeidah, 4 percent of productive agricultural lands in Yemen would suffer destruction of standing crops of beans, fruits and vegetables to the tune of more than $70 million.

The spill could lead to the closure of Hodeidah port for several months, which in turn would prevent the delivery of much-needed fuel and essential goods to the local population, cause fuel prices to soar by up to 800 percent and double the cost of goods in an already poverty-stricken nation.

Expectedly, a statement issued by the UN and the Netherlands government on May 11 made it clear that the timing and funding of the oil spill-prevention plan were of the essence.

And in comments to the media on Wednesday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said: “We know what the consequences are, we know the danger that is there, and we have encouraged others to contribute to the funding to this effort. But let’s be clear: The problem with the Safer is the Houthis, who have not allowed even the UN or others (access to inspect the ship.)”

Suggesting that the onus is on the Houthis to prove their sincerity, she added: “We can get all the money in the world, (but if) they don’t allow access, then we are still in the same place where we started. So, it is a two-pronged effort to get this (job) done.”

In the same vein, Dr. Al-Shehri points out that a settlement of the Safer standoff has been a long-standing priority of the regional actors, notably Saudi Arabia, which has been calling for a resolution of the many issues keeping Yemen embroiled in pointless conflict.

“The international community is responsible for all the chaos,” he told Arab News. “Its passive attitude is interpreted by the Houthis as a green light for continuing with their activities, so only the international community can, and must, resolve this matter once and for all. The solution is in its hands.”

 


Iraq tries to stem influx of illegal foreign workers from Pakistan, other nations

Updated 10 sec ago
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Iraq tries to stem influx of illegal foreign workers from Pakistan, other nations

  • The Iraqi labor ministry says the influx is mainly from Pakistan, Syria and Bangladesh, also citing 40,000 registered immigrant workers
  • Authorities are trying to regulate the number of foreign workers as Iraq seeks to diversify from the currently dominant hydrocarbons sector

KARBALA: Rami, a Syrian worker in Iraq, spends his 16-hour shifts at a restaurant fearing arrest as authorities crack down on undocumented migrants in the country better known for its own exodus.
He is one of hundreds of thousands of foreigners working without permits in Iraq, which after emerging from decades of conflict has become an unexpected destination for many seeking opportunities.
“I’ve been able to avoid the security forces and checkpoints,” said the 27-year-old, who has lived in Iraq for seven years and asked that AFP use a pseudonym to protect his identity.
Between 10 in the morning and 2:00 am the next day, he toils at a shawarma shop in the holy city of Karbala, where millions of Shiite pilgrims congregate every year.
“My greatest fear is to be expelled back to Syria where I’d have to do military service,” he said.
The labor ministry says the influx is mainly from Syria, Pakistan and Bangladesh, also citing 40,000 registered immigrant workers.
Now the authorities are trying to regulate the number of foreign workers, as the country seeks to diversify from the currently dominant hydrocarbons sector.
Many like Rami work in the service industry in Iraq.
One Baghdad restaurant owner admitted to AFP that he has to play cat and mouse with the authorities during inspections, asking some employees to make themselves scarce.
Not all those who work for him are registered, he said, because of the costly fees involved.
Some of the undocumented workers in Iraq first came as pilgrims. In July, Labour Minister Ahmed Assadi said his services were investigating information that “50,000 Pakistani visitors” stayed on “to work illegally.”
Despite threats of expulsion because of the scale of issue, the authorities at the end of November launched a scheme for “Syrian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers” to regularise their employment by applying online before December 25.
The ministry says it will take legal action against anyone who brings in or employs undocumented foreign workers.
Rami has decided to play safe, even though “I really want” to acquire legal employment status.
“But I’m afraid,” he said. “I’m waiting to see what my friends do, and then I’ll do the same.”
Current Iraqi law caps the number of foreign workers a company can employ at 50 percent, but the authorities now want to lower this to 30 percent.
“Today we allow in only qualified workers for jobs requiring skills” that are not currently available, labor ministry spokesman Nijm Al-Aqabi told AFP.
It’s a sensitive issue — for the past two decades, even the powerful oil sector has been dominated by a foreign workforce. But now the authorities are seeking to favor Iraqis.
“There are large companies contracted to the government” which have been asked to limit “foreign worker numbers to 30 percent,” said Aqabi.
“This is in the interests of the domestic labor market,” he said, as 1.6 million Iraqis are unemployed.
He recognized that each household has the right to employ a foreign domestic worker, claiming this was work Iraqis did not want to do.
One agency launched in 2021 that brings in domestic workers from Niger, Ghana and Ethiopia confirms the high demand.
“Before we used to bring in 40 women, but now it’s around 100” a year, said an employee at the agency, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.
It was a trend picked up from rich countries in the Gulf, the employee said.
“The situation in Iraq is getting better, and with salaries now higher, Iraqi home owners are looking for comfort.”
A domestic worker earns about $230 a month, but the authorities have quintupled the registration fee, with a work permit now costing more than $800.
In the summer, Human Rights Watch denounced what it called a campaign of arbitrary arrests and expulsions targeting Syrians, even those with the necessary paperwork.
HRW said that both homes and work places had been targeted by raids.
Ahmed — another pseudonym — is a 31-year-old Syrian who has been undocumented in Iraq for the past year and a half.
He began as a cook in Baghdad and later moved to Karbala.
“Life is hard here — we don’t have any rights,” he told AFP. “We come in illegally, and the security forces are after us.”
His wife did not accompany him. She stayed in Syria.
“I’d go back if I could,” said Ahmed. “But life there is very difficult. There’s no work.”


Gaza journalists win video award for ‘powerful’ war coverage

Updated 29 November 2024
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Gaza journalists win video award for ‘powerful’ war coverage

  • Belal Alsabbagh and Youssef assouna were presented the “News” award for their work on the devastating conflict set off by last year’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel
  • The prize has been awarded since 1995 in memory of video journalist Rory Peck, who was killed in Moscow in 1993, to highlight the work of freelance video journalists

LONDON: Gaza video correspondents Belal Alsabbagh and Youssef Hassouna on Thursday won a Rory Peck award for their “powerful” coverage of the brutal war in the Palestinian territory for Agence France-Presse.
The prize has been awarded since 1995 in memory of video journalist Rory Peck, who was killed in Moscow in 1993, to highlight the work of freelance video journalists.
Alsabbagh, 33, and Hassouna, 47, were presented the “News” award for their work on the devastating conflict set off by last year’s October 7 attack on Israel.
“Belal and Youssef’s work is remarkable for its range of emotions, we understood the dreadful scale of destruction in their drone shots and in the relentless attack,” the jury said in a tribute.
“This is visual reporting of the highest order. It’s not just a checklist of breaking news events, but powerful storytelling with empathy, courage and talent,” it added.
Among the heart-wrenching images entered in the contest were sequences of a man desperately searching for a relative in the debris after a strike, a woman howling in grief over a body in a hospital and Gaza residents queuing for food.
Alsabbagh, who left Gaza in April with his wife and daughter, was in London for the ceremony. In September, he was also awarded a prestigious Bayeux-Calvados prize for war correspondents.

This October 12, 2024 photo shows videographer Belal AlSabbagh (2nd left) and four other Palestinian media practitioners during the award ceremony as part of the 2024 edition of the “Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie of the war correspondents” in Bayeux,  France. (AFP)

“Despite my overflowing joy tonight, I have a heavy heart because members of my family and friends are still in Gaza, facing hunger, fear and still facing bombs,” said Alsabbagh, who has worked for AFP since 2017.
Hassouna, who has contributed to AFP since 2014 and is still in Gaza, has had to move home 10 times since the start of the war.
He has been one of the key independent video journalists working for AFP during the conflict.
“Everybody at AFP is tremendously proud of Belal and the work of his colleagues in Gaza. This award is a deserved recompense for his excellent journalism under seemingly impossible conditions,” said AFP global news director Phil Chetwynd.
“This prize rewards the courage of Belal and Youssef whose images for AFP showed television stations around the world the reality of the conflict in Gaza and the consequences for its civilian population,” said Guillaume Meyer, deputy news director for video and audio.
“I am very happy that their commitment and the quality of their work in incredibly difficult conditions has been recognized,” Meyer added.
“The Rory Peck award gives a precious support to freelance journalists without whom we could not work in numerous countries,” he said.
This is the sixth time since 2014 that an AFP correspondent has won a Rory Peck prize.
Among this year’s three finalists was Luckenson Jean, a freelancer for AFP covering the crisis in Haiti, where armed gangs have run amok.


 


44,330 Gazans killed in more than 13 months of war

Updated 29 November 2024
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44,330 Gazans killed in more than 13 months of war

  • Medics said Israeli military strikes killed at least 17 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday

GAZA CITY: The Health Ministry in Gaza said on Thursday that at least 44,330 people have been killed in more than 13 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 48 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 104,933 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Medics said Israeli military strikes killed at least 17 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday as forces stepped up bombardments on central areas and pushed tanks deeper in the north and south of the enclave.
Six people were killed in two separate airstrikes on a house and near the hospital of Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, while four others were killed when an Israeli strike hit a motorcycle in Khan Younis in the south.

In Nuseirat, one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, Israeli planes carried out several airstrikes, destroying a multi-floor building and hitting roads outside mosques.
At least seven people were killed in some of those strikes, health officials said.
Medics said at least two people, a woman and a child, were killed in tank shelling that hit western areas of Nuseirat, while an air strike killed five others in a house nearby. In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, tanks pushed deeper into the northern-west area of the city, residents said.
Months of attempts to negotiate a ceasefire have yielded scant progress, and negotiations are now on hold.


Royal Jordanian, Ethiopian Airlines to resume flights to Lebanon, Gulf carriers delay decisions

Updated 28 November 2024
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Royal Jordanian, Ethiopian Airlines to resume flights to Lebanon, Gulf carriers delay decisions

  • Both airlines announce service resumption in coming days, but most foreign airlines remain wary as they monitor stability of truce
  • Lebanon’s ATTAL president says ‘7-8 companies expected to return in coming days’

LONDON: Royal Jordanian, and Ethiopian Airlines have announced the resumption of flights to Beirut following the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah that took effect on Wednesday.

However, most Gulf and European airlines are delaying any immediate return to Lebanese airspace as they monitor the stability of the truce.

Jordan’s flag carrier, Royal Jordanian, will restart flights to Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport on Sunday after halting operations in late August amid escalating hostilities. CEO Samer Majali confirmed on Thursday that services would resume following the ceasefire.

Ethiopian Airlines has also reopened bookings for flights to Beirut, with services scheduled to resume on Dec. 10.

But despite these developments, most international airlines remain cautious.

Fadi Al-Hassan, director of Beirut Airport, told LBCI that Arab and foreign carriers were expected to gradually resume operations in the coming weeks, especially as the holiday season approaches.

However, Jean Abboud, president of the Association of Travel and Tourist Agents in Lebanon, predicted a slower return.

Abboud said in a statement that he expects “the return of some companies within a few days, which do not exceed seven to eight companies out of about 60 companies,” adding that many carriers were eyeing early 2025 to resume operations.

Airline updates

  • Emirates: Flights to and from Beirut remain canceled until Dec. 31.
  • Etihad Airways, Saudia, Air Arabia, Oman Air, Qatar Airways: Suspensions extend until early January 2025.
  • Lufthansa Group (including Eurowings): Flights to Beirut suspended until Feb. 28, 2025.
  • Air France-KLM: Services to Beirut suspended until Jan. 5, 2025, and Tel Aviv until Dec. 31, 2024.
  • Aegean Air: Flights to Beirut from Athens, London, and Milan are suspended until April 1, 2025.

At present, Middle East Airlines remains the sole carrier operating flights to and from Beirut, having maintained operations despite intense Israeli airstrikes near the airport.

The airline serves all major Gulf and European hubs, but flights are fully booked in the coming days as Lebanese expatriates rush to return home following the ceasefire announcement.

The upcoming Christmas season has also driven a surge in demand, offering a glimmer of hope for a country reeling from widespread destruction and an escalating economic crisis.

With the conflict having severely impacted Lebanon’s tourism sector, the holiday season could provide a much-needed lifeline for the struggling economy.

The resumption of additional services is expected to depend on whether the ceasefire holds and the overall security situation stabilizes.


UK signs deals with Iraq aimed at curbing irregular immigration

Britain’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Iraq’s Minister of Interior Abdul Amir Al-Shimmari.
Updated 28 November 2024
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UK signs deals with Iraq aimed at curbing irregular immigration

  • “Organized criminals operate across borders, so law enforcement needs to operate across borders too,” Cooper said
  • Pacts include a joint UK-Iraq “statement on border security” committing both countries to work more closely in tackling people smuggling and border security

LONDON: The UK government said Thursday it had struck a “world-first security agreement” and other cooperation deals with Iraq to target people-smuggling gangs and strengthen its border security.
Interior minister Yvette Cooper said the pacts sent “a clear signal to the criminal smuggling gangs that we are determined to work across the globe to go after them.”
They follow a visit this week by Cooper to Iraq and its autonomous Kurdistan region, when she met federal and regional government officials.
“Organized criminals operate across borders, so law enforcement needs to operate across borders too,” she said in a statement.
Cooper noted people-smuggling gangs’ operations “stretch back through Northern France, Germany, across Europe, to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and beyond.”
“The increasingly global nature of organized immigration crime means that even countries that are thousands of miles apart must work more closely together,” she added.
The pacts include a joint UK-Iraq “statement on border security” committing both countries to work more closely in tackling people smuggling and border security.
The two countries signed another statement on migration to speed up the returns of people who have no right to be in the UK and help reintegration programs to support returnees.
As part of the agreements, London will also provide up to £300,000 ($380,000) for Iraqi law enforcement training in border security.
It will be focused on countering organized immigration crime and narcotics, and increasing the capacity and capability of Iraq’s border enforcement.
The UK has pledged another £200,000 to support projects in the Kurdistan region, “which will enhance capabilities concerning irregular migration and border security, including a new taskforce.”
Other measures within the agreements include a communications campaign “to counter the misinformation and myths that people-smugglers post online.”
Cooper’s interior ministry said collectively they were “the biggest operational package to tackle serious organized crime and people smuggling between the two countries ever.”