ATHENS: A salvage operation to recover a Greek-registered oil tanker stranded ablaze in the Red Sea after an attack by Houthi militants is expected to start in the coming days, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.
The Sounion, which the Houthis and maritime sources have said has been rigged with explosives, is laden with about 1 million barrels of crude oil.
If a spill occurs, it has the potential to be among the largest from a ship in recorded history and could cause an environmental catastrophe in an area that is particularly dangerous to access.
“What was decided yesterday is an initial game plan, of the operation starting in 48 hours,” one of the sources said.
A second source said the operation was likely to be complex, given Houthis have planted explosives on board.
Greece said in a letter circulated through the UN shipping agency on Friday that what it called a “potential spill” of 2.2 nautical miles (4.2 km) in length had been detected in the area matching the location of the Sounion in the Red Sea.
However, an official with the European Union’s ASPIDES naval monitoring mission told Reuters that the potential spill was from the vessel’s engine and not from the oil cargo onboard.
“The potential spill is from the tanker’s engine after the first hit,” the ASPIDES official said.
Greece urged “all nations and all actors involved to assist in preventing the environmental hazard and resolving the situation the soonest possible” in its letter dated Aug. 29 and published on Friday by the UN’s International Maritime Organization.
Yemen’s Houthi militants carried out multiple assaults, including planting bombs on the already disabled 900-foot (274-meter) Sounion, which is operated by Athens-based Delta Tankers.
On Wednesday, the Iran-aligned militants said they would allow salvage teams to tow the ship — which has been on fire since Aug. 23 — to safety. The ship’s crew has been evacuated.
The sources said the priority of the operation — to decide whether to tow the vessel to a port or arrange a transfer of its cargo — depended on an inspection of the vessel.
“It is not an easy task, transferring the oil cargo to another ship, when there are explosives on it,” said one of the sources. “In any case, ASPIDES ships will protect and escort the vessel to a safe port.”
Greece has also been in touch with Saudi Arabia, a key player in the region, to ask for assistance.
“Delta Tankers is doing everything it can to move the vessel (and cargo). For security reasons, we are not in a position to comment further,” a spokesperson for the tanker operator said.
There had been conflicting accounts earlier in the week over whether the Sounion had started leaking its cargo.
“Houthis have agreed to allow its towing because at the end of the day any environmental disaster would affect their region,” said a shipping industry source.
Salvage of stricken oil tanker in Red Sea expected in coming days, say sources
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Salvage of stricken oil tanker in Red Sea expected in coming days, say sources
- Salvage operation of MV Sounion to start in coming days
- Efforts made to speed up process due to environmental concerns
Salvagers launch new attempt to tow an oil tanker blown up by Yemen’s Houthi rebels
- EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion
DUBAI: A new attempt has begun to try to salvage an oil tanker burning in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, a European Union naval mission said Saturday.
The EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion.
The mission has “been actively involved in this complex endeavor, by creating a secure environment, which is necessary for the tugboats to conduct the towing operation,” the EU said.
A phone number for the mission rang unanswered Saturday.
The Sounion came under attack from the Houthis beginning Aug. 21. The vessel had been staffed by a crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, who were taken by a French destroyer to nearby Djibouti.
The Houthis later planted explosives aboard the ship and detonated them. That’s led to fears the ship’s 1 million barrels of crude oil could spill into the Red Sea.
The Houthis have targeted more than 80 vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that also killed four sailors. One of the sunken vessels, the Tutor, went down after the Houthis planted explosives aboard it and after its crew abandoned it due to an earlier attack, the rebel group later acknowledged.
Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets.
The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
Syria’s Assad names ex-minister Jalali to form cabinet
CAIRO: Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree naming former communications minister Mohammad Ghazi Al-Jalali to form a new cabinet, state media said on Saturday.
The new cabinet will replace an outgoing administration which has been serving in a caretaker role since parliamentary elections in mid-July.
Al-Jalali served as communications minister from 2014-2016. He has been subject to EU sanctions.
since 2014 for his “responsibility for the regime’s violent repression of the civilian population.”
According to UN figures, at least 350,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 from an uprising against Assad’s rule.
Gaza rescuers say 11 from one family killed in Israeli strike
- The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City
GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli air strike hit a house in Gaza City on Saturday morning and killed 11 members of a single family, including women and children.
“We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli air strike hit the house of the Bustan family in eastern Gaza City,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, he said.
“Rescuers are continuing to search for the missing,” Bassal said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike.
Bassal said Israeli forces carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the Hamas-run territory overnight, killing at least 10 people.
Five people were killed in northwestern Gaza City when an air strike hit a group of people near Dar Al-Arqam school, he said.
Three others were killed in a strike in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern Khan Yunis governorate, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added.
The war in Gaza broke out after the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 captives during the attack, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead. The count includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has so far killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths. The UN human rights office says most of the dead have been women or children.
Iran successfully launches satellite into space
- The Chamran-1 satellite has a weight of 60kg and it reached a 550km orbit in space
- Testing space hardware and software is the main mission of the satellite, report says
TEHRAN: Iran Saturday sent a research satellite into orbit with a rocket built by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The report said the Chamran-1 satellite has a weight of 60 kilograms and successfully reached in 550-kilometer (341 miles) orbit in space. It said testing space hardware and software is the main mission of the satellite.
IRNA said land stations received signals from the satellite, too.
It said the satellite-carrier rocket Qaem-100, using solid fuel, was designed and made by the Guard aerospace division. Iran says it has 13 more satellite launches in a row.
Though Iran has long planned to send satellites into orbit, this is the first launch under reformist President Masoud Pezezhkian after his hard-line predecessor Ebrahim Raisi died in a May helicopter crash.
In January Iran said it successfully launched three satellites into space with a rocket.
The program is seen by the West as part of the improvement of Tehran’s ballistic missiles. The launch also comes as heightened tensions grip the wider Middle East over Israel’s continued war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparking fears of a regional conflict.
The United States has previously said Iran’s satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired last October.
Iran successfully launches satellite into space
- The Chamran-1 satellite has a weight of 60 kilograms and it successfully reached a 550-kilometer orbit in space
- Testing space hardware and software is the main mission of the satellite
TEHRAN: Iran Saturday sent a research satellite into orbit with a rocket built by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The report said the Chamran-1 satellite has a weight of 60 kilograms and successfully reached in 550-kilometer (341 miles) orbit in space. It said testing space hardware and software is the main mission of the satellite.
IRNA said land stations received signals from the satellite, too.
It said the satellite-carrier rocket Qaem-100, using solid fuel, was designed and made by the Guard aerospace division. Iran says it has 13 more satellite launches in a row.
Though Iran has long planned to send satellites into orbit, this is the first launch under reformist President Masoud Pezezhkian after his hard-line predecessor Ebrahim Raisi died in a May helicopter crash.
In January Iran said it successfully launched three satellites into space with a rocket.
The program is seen by the West as part of the improvement of Tehran’s ballistic missiles. The launch also comes as heightened tensions grip the wider Middle East over Israel’s continued war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparking fears of a regional conflict.
The United States has previously said Iran’s satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired last October.
