Yemen, Britain Warn against 1 Mn Barrel Oil Leak in Red Sea from Safer Tankerhttps://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2335061/yemen-britain-warn-against-1-mn-barrel-oil-leak-red-sea-safer-tanker
Yemen, Britain Warn against 1 Mn Barrel Oil Leak in Red Sea from Safer Tanker
The Safer oil tanker off Yemen's Red Sea coast, pictured in March 2005. (Getty Images)
Yemen’s Minister of Fish Wealth Fahd Kafayen warned that a marine environment disaster was imminent in the Red Sea over the continued erosion of the Safer floating oil storage and offloading vessel that is moored north of Hodeidah city.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the disaster was looming after the corrosion of the floating tank, which holds nearly a million barrels of crude oil.
He said that leak would lead to a marine disaster that would stretch across vast areas of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and reach neighboring regions. It will lead to massive destruction in marine life and the spill would be difficult to contain.
Its impact will last for several years, he warned.
The Safer is laden with some 1.1 million barrels of crude oil and has been stranded with no maintenance since early 2015, soon after the Iran-backed Houthi militias staged their coup in Yemen, leaving it to deteriorate and potentially allowing explosive gases to build up.
Kafayen urged the international community to immediately intervene and force the Houthis to allow experts to urgently resolve the problem before it gets even worse.
British Ambassador to Yemen Michael Aron echoed the plea, urging the militants to allow United Nations experts to access the tanker and assess the situation.
The experts should be allowed to prepare a report on the best ways to handle the problem, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The United Nations has warned that if the Safer ruptures, it could block maritime trade through the Red Sea, which accounts for up to 10 percent of world trade.
It could also threaten the daily passage of some 5.5 million barrels of oil, contaminate drinking water and damage the marine environment across the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and parts of Gulf waters.
The tanker holds a capacity of 3.5 million barrels. The Safer company used to perform regular maintenance on the vessel until the Houthis seized control of Hodeidah and prevented them from accessing it.
Some 176 workers used to operate the floating platform, but now there are only four.
According to information obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat, Safer was listed put up for auction by Japan in 1986. It was considered the world’s second largest vessel as the time. The Hunt Oil Company purchased it and turned it into a floating platform near Ras Issa in Hodeidah.
Yemen’s Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani had previously cited technical reports that warned that a leak would spill 138 million liters of oil in the Red Sea, which would be four times worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaskan waters.
Officials carry the bodies of victims killed in the Israeli strike on the southern village of Deir Qanoun al-Nahr, outside Jabal Amel Hospital in the Tyre area of south Lebanon, before the bodies were transferred to their hometown for burial, as security conditions prevented families from holding the farewell ceremony in the village, on May 21, 2026. (Photo by KAWANT HAJU / AFP)
Hezbollah Shifts Fight to Counter Israeli Expansion Attempts
Officials carry the bodies of victims killed in the Israeli strike on the southern village of Deir Qanoun al-Nahr, outside Jabal Amel Hospital in the Tyre area of south Lebanon, before the bodies were transferred to their hometown for burial, as security conditions prevented families from holding the farewell ceremony in the village, on May 21, 2026. (Photo by KAWANT HAJU / AFP)
Hezbollah sent a message to Arab and other embassies in Lebanon on Thursday, setting out its demands to their governments: an end to assassinations, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory, the return of residents to their villages, and the release of detainees held by Israel.
It said the issue of its weapons should be addressed through “internal dialogue.”
The move came as military operations continued in south Lebanon, including an explosion in one village on the third line from the Israeli border, while Hezbollah focused on countering what it sees as Israeli attempts to expand deeper into Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah is trying to prevent any further Israeli advance in south Lebanon aimed at tightening control over villages within or around the “yellow line.” Security sources in the south told Asharq Al-Awsat the group’s pressure is concentrated on likely points of new incursions, especially around Zawtar in the eastern sector on the Litani River bank.
They said Israeli forces were trying to push through those vulnerable areas toward Lebanon’s interior, whether in Zawtar or Hadatha.
Israeli forces advanced on Wednesday into the eastern neighborhood of Hadatha, a town on the third line of border villages. Hezbollah said it had confronted the advance from several directions.
Local sources said later on Wednesday that Israeli forces carried out an explosion in the eastern neighborhood, alongside heavy air and artillery strikes on the town.
The advance began from Rshaf, a town on the second line of border villages. Rshaf is adjacent to Debel, a Christian town, many of whose residents have been displaced to the Christian towns of Rmeish and Ain Ebel, while others fled to areas deeper inside Lebanon during the third week of the expanded war.
Security sources in South Lebanon said Hezbollah intensified its operations in the area to prevent Israeli forces from entering Hadatha and seizing it.
They said the group had “concentrated its military weight in that area, in the face of an Israeli military weight focused on the same area to advance inland.”
The intensity was reflected in Hezbollah statements announcing rocket salvos and suicide drone attacks on gatherings of Israeli army vehicles and soldiers in Debel and Rshaf, as well as attacks around Hadatha “with attack drones and heavy rocket salvos in repeated waves.”
On the Israeli side, the Hebrew website Walla reported that Colonel Meir Biderman, commander of the 401st Brigade, was wounded in a Hezbollah attack in Debel.
It quoted a military source as saying Biderman “entered a building in south Lebanon that was known to be protected in order to sleep there, then came under attack by a drone.”
The source said the brigade commander was seriously wounded when the drone exploded.
(COMBO) This combination of handout satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC shows views of the village of Yaroun in southern Lebanon close to the border with Israel on (top L to R followed by bottom L to R) October 5, 2024; January 10, 2025; January 30, 2025; and on May 2, 2026. (Photo by 2026 Planet Labs PBC / AFP)
3,089 killed
Air and artillery strikes continued inside Lebanon. The Health Ministry said 3,089 people had been killed and 9,397 wounded from March 2 to May 21.
The escalation also continued on the ground. An Israeli drone struck a motorcycle in Froun, killing its driver. Artillery fire hit Kfar Dounin, Baraachit, Mansouri, Beit Yahoun and Touline. Israeli warplanes struck Ghandouriyeh.
Israeli warplanes also raided the outskirts of Touline and the road between Toura and Jennata in the Tyre district.
An Israeli drone dropped sound bombs near farmers in Haniyeh, south of Tyre, without causing casualties.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Deir El Zahrani on May 13, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
Hezbollah turns to Western and Arab states
Against that backdrop, Hezbollah, through its parliamentary Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, turned to foreign and Arab diplomatic missions in Beirut. The message addressed governments on the situation in the south and sought to justify the fighting there.
In a memo explaining the field situation during the 15 months before it joined Iran’s support war, the bloc said political and diplomatic efforts “did not lead to a halt to these Israeli crimes against our country.”
It said the Lebanese government had failed to compel “the occupying entity” and the sponsors of the agreement to implement it, while the committee tasked with applying the agreement, “the mechanism,” had deliberately failed to do its job, worsening the suffering of the Lebanese people.
The bloc said: “Our demand as Lebanese, and the demand of everyone keen on the sovereignty, independence and freedom of their country, is to stop all forms of aggression against our national sovereignty by air, land and sea, to halt hostile actions, including the assassination of citizens and the targeting of civilian infrastructure, homes and public and private institutions, the withdrawal of the Israeli enemy army from our land to the internationally recognized borders, the return of residents to their villages and their reconstruction, and the release of detainees from occupation prisons.”
It added: “As for other issues linked to protecting Lebanon, they are a Lebanese matter that can be addressed through internal dialogue leading to the completion of a national security strategy to which all Lebanese commit,” a reference to Hezbollah’s disarmament.
Building Collapse Kills 11 People in Morocco's Fezhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5275747-building-collapse-kills-11-people-moroccos-fez
Building Collapse Kills 11 People in Morocco's Fez
The Moroccan flag is seen in front of a destroyed building following the devastating earthquake in Marrakesh last month. (Reuters)
Eleven people were killed and six others injured when a four-storey building collapsed overnight in the Moroccan city of Fez, about 200 kilometres (124 miles) east of Rabat, state-owned broadcaster 2M said on Thursday.
Authorities said a search for others who might still be buried was ongoing. Media showed footage of rescuers and residents digging through the rubble, Reuters reported.
An investigation has been launched into the incident, and residents of adjacent buildings were asked to evacuate as a precaution against potential further collapses, authorities said.
Fez, a former capital dating back to the eighth century and the country's third-most-populous city, has seen similar incidents in recent months, including one in December when two buildings collapsed, killing at least 22 people.
In 2010, the collapse of a minaret in the historic northern city of Meknes killed 41 people.
Adib Ben Ibrahim, housing secretary of state, said last year that approximately 38,800 buildings across the country had been classified as being at risk of collapse.
Syria's Sharaa to Attend G7 Summit in Francehttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5275742-syrias-sharaa-attend-g7-summit-france
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City on September 24, 2025. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City on September 24, 2025. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
Syria will attend the G7 summit in France next month as a guest nation and be represented by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, three sources familiar with the matter said, marking Syria's first participation in a summit of the group since the forum was founded in 1975. An invitation to Sharaa to attend the June 15-17 summit in Évian-les-Bains, southeastern France, was hand-delivered to Syrian Finance Minister Yisr Barnieh, who attended the group's financial talks earlier this week in Paris, one of the sources said.
The source, a Syrian official, said Syria's participation in the talks would likely focus on the country's role as a “potential strategic hub for supply chains” following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Shipping through the strait has been largely halted since the Iran war erupted at the end of February, rattling the global economy.
Syria, emerging from its 14-year civil war as an ally of the West, is seeking to rebuild an economy shattered by years of conflict and sanctions.
While most sanctions imposed during former Presidents Hafez and Bashar al-Assad's rule have since been eased, attracting foreign investment and restoring normal banking ties have proven slower and more difficult than many officials had hoped.
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