Houthi obstacles to pump oil from decaying Yemen tanker

 The start of the transfer of more than a million barrels of crude oil from the decaying Yemeni tanker Safer to the new tanker that arrived on the Yemeni coast two days ago was postponed due to the obstacles by the Houthi militia.

The United Nations on Monday handed over a vessel that will take on  board oil from a decaying tanker in the Red Sea off war-torn Yemen, an operation aimed at averting an environmental catastrophe.

The Houthi measures prevented the tanker from directly reaching the site of the operation in the port of Ras Issa, as it spent two days in the port of Hodeidah and is still there.

Government sources said that the UN efforts succumbed to the measures imposed by the Houthis, and the ship sailed to the port of Hodeidah instead of its main destination, the Ras Issa oil port.

Government sources made it clear that the Houthi leaders wanted to turn the rescue operation into a political show-off.