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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)
The Safer oil tanker off Yemen's Red Sea coast, pictured in March 2005. (Getty Images)
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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)
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.

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Houthi Ceasefire Reportedly Followed US Intel Showing Militias Sought Off-ramp

Houthi soldiers ride a pick-up truck as they patrol a street in Sanaa, Yemen, 11 May 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Houthi soldiers ride a pick-up truck as they patrol a street in Sanaa, Yemen, 11 May 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
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Houthi Ceasefire Reportedly Followed US Intel Showing Militias Sought Off-ramp

Houthi soldiers ride a pick-up truck as they patrol a street in Sanaa, Yemen, 11 May 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Houthi soldiers ride a pick-up truck as they patrol a street in Sanaa, Yemen, 11 May 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB

Days before a surprise US ceasefire agreement with Houthis, US intelligence started picking up indications the Yemeni militias were looking for an exit after seven weeks of relentless US bombings, four US officials said.

Houthi leaders began reaching out sometime around the first weekend in May to US allies in the Middle East, two of the officials told Reuters.

"We started getting intel that the Houthis had had enough," one of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity to recount the internal discussions about the intelligence, which haven't been previously reported.

Interviews with current and former US officials, diplomatic sources and other experts show how a campaign that the US military's Central Command once envisioned might stretch through most of this year came to abrupt halt on May 6 after 52 days, allowing President Donald Trump to declare victory before heading to the Middle East this week.

Since November 2023, the Houthis have disrupted commerce by launching hundreds of drone and missile attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel in solidarity with Palestinians over the war in Gaza.

Two sources said Iran played an important role in encouraging the Iran-aligned Houthis to negotiate, as Tehran pursues its own talks with the United States over its nuclear program aimed at ending crippling US sanctions and preventing a military strike by the US or Israel.

But the culmination of the ceasefire accord underscored how quickly the Trump administration moved on initial intelligence to secure what in March seemed unthinkable to many experts in the short term: a Houthi declaration it would stop striking US ships. Trump's unconventional approach included bypassing close US ally Israel, which is not covered by the agreement, and which was not told ahead of time, an Israeli official and a person familiar with the matter said.

The Houthis weren't the only ones feeling pressure. The bombing campaign has also been costly to the United States, which has burned through munitions and lost two aircraft and multiple drones.

After the early May tips on the Houthis, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth initiated a series of meetings at the White House on Monday morning, and concluded there was a window of opportunity with the Iran-aligned fighters, one of the officials said.

Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who was already leading US negotiations on Iran's nuclear program, worked through Omani mediators and held indirect talks with the chief Houthi negotiator and spokesperson, Mohammed Abdulsalam, two US officials told Reuters.

Abdulsalam was in turn in contact with the Houthis' top leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, one of the officials said.

A framework agreement was reached later on Monday, one of the officials said.

By Tuesday, May 6, Trump was ready to announce an accord, declaring the Houthis had capitulated.

"They said please don't bomb us any more and we're not going to attack your ships," he told reporters.

Asked about Reuters' findings, the Houthis' Abdulsalam said the group communicated only via Oman and agreed to the ceasefire because the Houthis had been responding to the United States defensively.

"So if they stopped their aggression, we stopped our response," Abdusalam told Reuters, declining further comment.

A spokesperson for Witkoff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

OFF-RAMP

Each side saw some benefit to striking a deal. For the Houthis, it offered an off-ramp that could allow them to rebuild and relieve pressure that, over months or years, could have strategically put them at risk, US officials and experts say.

At the start of the US campaign on March 15, al-Houthi was defiant, saying in a televised address that his fighters would target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US continued its attacks on Yemen.

At the time, it appeared the United States might be locked in a costly standoff, as US forces used up munitions during more than 1,100 strikes. Hegseth said the US would only halt its bombings once the Houthis agreed to stop striking US ships and drones.

The Houthis shot down seven US MQ-9 drones -- each worth tens of millions of dollars -- since Trump took office.

The Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, whose deployment in the Middle East was extended by Hegseth, lost two fighter jets, including one falling from the deck of the ship after the massive vessel was forced to make a hard turn because of a Houthi attack in the area.