Houthis allow tug boats to reach leaking Red Sea oil tanker

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Yemen’s Houthi militants say they have allowed tug boats to reach a damaged Greek-flagged oil tanker that they attacked in the Red Sea last week.
The MV Sounion was carrying 150,000 tonnes of crude and caught fire after being attacked on August 21, according to the EU’s naval mission in the Red Sea. It warned on Wednesday that the vessel “posed a serious and imminent threat of regional pollution”.
Houthi spokesman Muhammad Abdel Salam said the group allowed the ship to be towed after several international requests, including from European nations.
The rebel statement came after the Pentagon said on Wednesday that the tanker appeared to be leaking oil.
The EU naval mission disputed this. “There’s no oil spill, and the ship is still anchored and not drifting,” it said. Fires had been detected in several locations on the main deck of the vessel, the mission added.
It said a spill would be a “catastrophic environmental crisis”, and that EU forces were on standby for “any course of action”.
The ship was shot at from small boats before being hit by three projectiles, leaving it stranded, according to the UK’s Maritime Trade Organisation.
The 25-member crew were rescued by a warship from the EU naval mission, which was sent to the region after the Iran-backed Houthis started attacking ships passing through the Red Sea in November as a response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Houthi statement came hours after Iran’s mission to the UN said the vessel would be towed “in consideration of humanitarian and environmental concerns”.
“The failure to provide aid and prevent an oil spill in the Red Sea stems from the negligence of certain countries, rather than concerns over the possibility of being targeted,” the Iranian mission said.
It claimed the vessel’s cargo was bound for Israel – an accusation the Houthis have used as a reason for attacking ships.
Mr Abdel Salam said the attack on the MV Sounion “is an example of Yemen’s seriousness in targeting any ship that violates the Yemeni embargo decision, that prohibits any ship from crossing to the ports of occupied Palestine”.
All shipping companies linked to Israel “should realise their ships will remain vulnerable to Yemeni strikes wherever the [Houthis] can reach them until the aggression stops and the siege on Gaza is lifted”, he said.
It is not the first time a Houthi attack has created an environmental risk. In July, an oil slick more than 200km long developed after an attack on the Liberian-flagged Chios Lion oil tanker, threatening coral reefs in the area.
Nations have poured millions into funding a UN effort to prevent oil spilling from the FSO Safer, a storage vessel off the coast of Yemen’s Hodeidah province. The ship has been described as a “ticking time bomb” because of a lack of proper maintenance since it fell under Houthi control in 2015.
The Houthis have escalated attacks on shipping despite US, UK and Israeli strikes on its weapons launch and storage sites since January. In June, the EU mission said it needed to double its fleet in order to counter the attacks.