RIYADH — Saudi Arabia on Sunday pledged $10
million to help prevent an ageing Yemeni oil tanker from unleashing a
potentially catastrophic spill in the Red Sea bordering its waters.
اضافة اعلان
The decaying 45-year-old oil tanker known as the FSO
Safer, long used as a floating storage platform, and now abandoned off the
rebel-held Yemeni port of Hodeida, has not been serviced since Yemen was
plunged into civil war.
A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen
in 2015 after Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa the previous year.
The tanker, which lies some 150km south of the border with Saudi Arabia, is in
“imminent” danger of breaking up, the UN warned last month.
The Safer contains four times the amount of oil that
was spilled by the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, one of the world’s worst ecological
catastrophes, according to the UN.
Last week environmental campaign group Greenpeace
urged the Arab League to drum up funds for an operation that would transfer its
1.1 million barrels of oil to a different vessel.
A UN pledging conference last month fell far short
of its $80 million target, bringing in just $33 million.
Environmentalists warn the cost of the operation is
a pittance compared to the estimated $20 billion it would cost to clean up a
spill. The UN has said an oil spill could destroy ecosystems, shut down the
fishing industry and close the lifeline Hodeida port for six months. It has
said the operation needs to be completed by the end of September to avoid
“turbulent winds” that pick up later in the year.
Riyadh will donate $10 million to the effort through
the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, the official Saudi Press
Agency reported Sunday.
“The Kingdom calls on the United Nations to quickly
take the necessary measures to ensure the prevention of oil leakage... and also
calls on the international community to contribute urgently to support this
initiative and prevent a serious environmental disaster,” the agency said.
Saudi Arabia’s current defense spending is $36.8 billion per
year, according to the Military Balance+ database prepared by the International
Institute for Strategic Studies.
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