UN Expects Unloading of Yemen's Safer Tanker Cargo by Mid-July

This satellite image provided by Manar Technologies taken June 17, 2020, shows the FSO Safer tanker moored off Ras Issa port, in Yemen. (AP)
This satellite image provided by Manar Technologies taken June 17, 2020, shows the FSO Safer tanker moored off Ras Issa port, in Yemen. (AP)
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UN Expects Unloading of Yemen's Safer Tanker Cargo by Mid-July

This satellite image provided by Manar Technologies taken June 17, 2020, shows the FSO Safer tanker moored off Ras Issa port, in Yemen. (AP)
This satellite image provided by Manar Technologies taken June 17, 2020, shows the FSO Safer tanker moored off Ras Issa port, in Yemen. (AP)

The UN expected the process of unloading Yemen's eroding FSO Safer tanker to an alternative vessel will begin in mid-July.

The vessel is holding more than a million barrels of oil and has been moored off the Ras Issa coast in Hodeidah for years. It is in "imminent" danger of breaking up, the UN warned last week.

According to the UN’s operational plan to deal with Safer, the new ship will selected in May and contract details to be completed in July.

At an international conference two days ago, the UN managed to raise $41.5 million in funds for its operational plan. However, the global body estimated that it needs a total of $144 million to implement it.

Around $80 million is urgently needed to implement the emergency operation to eliminate the direct threat and transfer oil from Safer to the temporary ship during the summer.

An official at the Safer Exploration & Production Operations Company, which owns FSO Safer, doubted the plan would succeed.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the UN will face great challenges, most importantly, getting the Iran-backed Houthi militias to follow through with their commitments.

Moreover, the official commented on the UN’s estimation of the funds needed to empty FSO Safer and said that they were exaggerated.

“These sums can be used for major matters, including the resumption of the construction of strategic reservoirs on the land, a project that would have had six months to be completed, had it not been for the war that the Houthis ignited,” the official told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The official also questioned the UN’s decision to rent another vessel to hold FSO Safer’s oil.

The FSO Safer was constructed in 1976 as an oil tanker and converted to a floating storage and offloading vessel a decade later. Safer has not been serviced since 2015.

At 376 meters long, it is among the largest oil tankers in the world. The crude oil it holds is four times the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez, the tanker that caused one of the greatest environmental disasters in the history of the United States.



Israel Carries Out Intense Airstrikes in Southern Lebanon, 1 Dead

Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes near Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon on June 27, 2025. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)
Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes near Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon on June 27, 2025. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)
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Israel Carries Out Intense Airstrikes in Southern Lebanon, 1 Dead

Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes near Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon on June 27, 2025. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)
Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes near Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon on June 27, 2025. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)

Israel’s air force carried out intense airstrikes on mountains overlooking a southern Lebanon city on Friday in an attack that the Israeli military said targeted Hezbollah underground assets.

The airstrikes came in two waves on the mountains overlooking Nabatiyeh and bunker buster bombs were used, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported. There was no immediate information about casualties.

Since the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war ended with a US-brokered ceasefire in November, Israel has carried out almost daily airstrikes on southern Lebanon. Friday’s strikes were more intense than usual.

The Israeli military said in a statement that its fighter jets struck a site used by Hezbollah to manage its fire and defense array in the area and is part of a significant underground project that was completely taken out of use.

The Israeli army said it identified rehabilitation attempts by Hezbollah beforehand and struck infrastructure sites in the area.

There was no comment from Hezbollah.

An Israeli drone also targeted on Friday an apartment in a two-story building in Nabatiyeh.

Lebanon's health ministry said a woman was killed and 11 other people were wounded in the strike.

"The Israeli enemy strike on an apartment in Nabatiyeh led to a preliminary toll of one woman killed and 11 people wounded," the ministry said in a statement carried by the official National News Agency.