NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Yemen’s Houthis to allow an assessment team to travel to a decaying oil tanker that is threatening to spill 1.1 million barrels of crude oil off the war-torn country’s coast.
More then a month ago Houthi officials said they would agree to allow a UN mission to conduct a technical assessment and whatever initial repairs might be feasible on the Safer tanker. But the United Nations is still waiting for formal authorization.
Guterres is “deeply concerned” about the condition of the oil tanker, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday. The United Nations has warned that the Safer could spill four times as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.
“He specifically calls for granting independent technical experts unconditional access to the tanker to assess its condition and conduct any possible initial repairs,” Dujarric said. “This ... will provide crucial scientific evidence for next steps to be taken in order to avert catastrophe.”
The Safer tanker has been stranded off Yemen’s Red Sea oil terminal of Ras Issa for more than five years. The UN Security Council has also called on the Houthis to facilitate unconditional access as soon as possible.
UN chief urges Yemen’s Houthis to grant access to decaying oil tanker
https://arab.news/m5by7
UN chief urges Yemen’s Houthis to grant access to decaying oil tanker
- More then a month ago Houthi officials said they would agree to allow a UN mission to conduct a technical assessment
- The UN is still waiting for formal authorization
Libya says identified three suspects in killing of Qaddafi’s son
- The prosecutor’s office said its investigation determined the “meeting place of the suspects, the time at which they went to the scene of the crime and committed it”
- The office added in the statement on Facebook that it had ordered their arrest
TRIPOLI: Libyan prosecutors said Thursday they had identified three suspects in last month’s killing of the son of former leader Muammar Qaddafi, without specifying their identities.
Seif Al-Islam Qaddafi, once seen by some as Libya’s heir apparent, was shot dead in his home in the northwestern city of Zintan in early February.
The prosecutor’s office said its investigation determined the “meeting place of the suspects, the time at which they went to the scene of the crime and committed it... as well as the identity of three suspects.”
The office added in the statement on Facebook that it had ordered their arrest.
While he held no official position in the North African country under his father’s rule, Seif Al-Islam had been described as Libya’s de facto prime minister, cultivating an image of moderation and reform prior to the 2011 Arab Spring revolt.
But that reputation soon collapsed when he promised “rivers of blood” in the face of the uprisings.
Following a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity, he was arrested by Libyan authorities in 2011.
A Tripoli court later sentenced him to death but he was granted amnesty.
Marcel Ceccaldi, a French lawyer who had been representing Seif Al-Islam, told AFP he was killed by a “four-man commando” who stormed his house.
