Regional, Int’l Mobilization to Confront Fallout from Houthis’ Sinking of Rubymar

This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies on March 2, 2024 and dated March 1, shows the Belize-flagged cargo ship Rubymar, damaged in a February 18 missile strike claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi militias, floating in the Red Sea. (Satellite image 2024 Maxar Technologies / AFP)
This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies on March 2, 2024 and dated March 1, shows the Belize-flagged cargo ship Rubymar, damaged in a February 18 missile strike claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi militias, floating in the Red Sea. (Satellite image 2024 Maxar Technologies / AFP)
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Regional, Int’l Mobilization to Confront Fallout from Houthis’ Sinking of Rubymar

This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies on March 2, 2024 and dated March 1, shows the Belize-flagged cargo ship Rubymar, damaged in a February 18 missile strike claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi militias, floating in the Red Sea. (Satellite image 2024 Maxar Technologies / AFP)
This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies on March 2, 2024 and dated March 1, shows the Belize-flagged cargo ship Rubymar, damaged in a February 18 missile strike claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi militias, floating in the Red Sea. (Satellite image 2024 Maxar Technologies / AFP)

Officials from Yemen, Djibouti, Eritrea, Britain, China, the United States, European Union and United Nations held a meeting in the interim Yemeni capital Aden on Tuesday to discuss the fallout from the sinking of the Rubymar by the Iran-backed Houthi militias in the Red Sea last week.

The UK-owned and Belize-flagged Rubymar was abandoned after the Houthis fired a missile at the ship in the southern Red Sea on February 18, leading to a fuel leak and it taking on water.

The US military confirmed on Saturday that the vessel had sunk, the first total loss from the attacks in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait. Yemen's legitimate government pointed out the risk to marine life due to its cargo of hazardous fertilizer.

Tuesday’s meeting tackled means to respond to the consequences of the disaster and limit its impact.

Yemeni Minister of Water and Environment Tawfik al-Sharjabi, who was present at the meeting, called on the regional and international communities to assume their responsibilities to stop the terrorist Houthi threats and disasters.

He urged them to help Yemen in confronting the challenges caused by these problems, reported the state news agency Saba.

The UN had announced that it was prepared to provide technical assistance to the Yemeni government by sending experts to assess the situation. They are expected to arrive in days.

Meanwhile, Dr. Abdulqader Al-Kharraz, former chairman of Yemen’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA), speculated that the sinking may have been deliberate to "bury hazardous waste" off Yemen.

He explained that the sinking may have been part of a deal struck between the Houthis and international parties.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he noted that the vessel was registered in England, but its owners are Syrian and Lebanese and the company owner is based in Beirut.

He noted that the operating company’s failure to take action to rescue the ship, even though it was moored at sea for 12 days, raises suspicions that the sinking was deliberate so that its cargo could be buried at sea.

This confirms that an environmental crime has been committed by the Houthis in cooperation with an international mafia, Al-Kharraz said.

Insurance industry sources said the Rubymar, built in 1997, was an ageing vessel with a low value, which was not believed to have been covered through the major London marine insurance market.

The US military previously said the February 18 missile attack had significantly damaged the bulk vessel and caused an 18-mile (29-km) oil slick.

"The approximately 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer that the vessel was carrying presents an environmental risk in the Red Sea," the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

Al-Kharraz said the Rubymar was carrying 41,000 tons of fertilizer and other unknown substances.

"It seems the ship was carrying hazardous waste that was not declared," he speculated.

Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, the foreign minister in Yemen's legitimate government in Aden, said in a post on X: "The sinking of the Rubymar is an environmental catastrophe that Yemen and the region have never experienced before.

"It is a new tragedy for our country and our people. Every day we pay the price for the adventures of the Houthi militia ..."

The release of such large amounts of fertilizer into the Red Sea poses a serious threat to marine life, said Ali Al-Sawalmih, director of the Marine Science Station at the University of Jordan.

The overload of nutrients can stimulate excessive growth of algae, using up so much oxygen that regular marine life cannot survive, said Al-Sawalmih, describing a process called eutrophication.

"An urgent plan should be adopted by countries of the Red Sea to establish monitoring agenda of the polluted areas in the Red Sea as well as adopt a cleanup strategy," he said.

The overall impact depends on how ocean currents deplete the fertilizer and how it is released from the stricken vessel, said Xingchen Tony Wang, assistant professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College.

The ecosystem of the southern Red Sea features pristine coral reefs, coastal mangroves and diverse marine life.

Last year, the area avoided a potential environmental disaster when the United Nations removed more than 1 million barrels of oil from a decaying supertanker moored off the Yemen coast. That type of operation may be more difficult in the current circumstances.



Rights Defenders Denounce US Sanctions on UN Expert on Palestinians

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo
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Rights Defenders Denounce US Sanctions on UN Expert on Palestinians

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo

Human rights defenders rallied on Thursday to support the top UN expert on Palestinian rights, after the United States imposed sanctions on her over what it said was unfair criticism of Israel.

Italian lawyer Francesca Albanese serves as special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, one of dozens of experts appointed by the 47-member UN Human Rights Council to report on specific global issues.

She has long criticized Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, and this month published a report accusing over 60 companies, including some US firms, of supporting Israeli settlements in the West Bank and military actions in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday Albanese would be added to the US sanctions list for work which had prompted what he described as illegitimate prosecutions of Israelis at the International Criminal Court.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged Washington to reverse course.

"Even in the face of fierce disagreement, UN Member States should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures," he said, Reuters reported.

Juerg Lauber, the Swiss permanent representative to the UN who now holds the rotating presidency of the Human Rights Council, said he regretted the sanctions, and called on states to "refrain from any acts of intimidation or reprisal" against the body's experts.

Mariana Katzarova, who serves as the special rapporteur for human rights in Russia, said her concern was that other countries would follow the US lead.

"This is totally unacceptable and opens the gates for any other government to do the same," she told Reuters. "It is an attack on UN system as a whole. Member states must stand up and denounce this."

Russia has rejected Katzarova's mandate and refused to let her enter the country, but it has so far stopped short of publicly adding her to a sanctions list.

Washington has already imposed sanctions against officials at the International Criminal Court, which has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for suspected war crimes in Gaza. Another court, the International Court of Justice, is hearing a case brought by South Africa that accuses Israel of genocide.

Israel denies that its forces have carried out war crimes or genocide against Palestinians in the war in Gaza, which was precipitated by an attack by Hamas-led fighters in October 2023.

"The United States is working to dismantle the norms and institutions on which survivors of grave abuses rely," said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

The group's former head, Kenneth Roth, called the US sanctions an attempt "to deter prosecution of Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza".

The United States, once one of the most active members of the Human Rights Council, has disengaged from it under President Donald Trump, alleging an anti-Israel bias.