The United Nations has said it is “disappointing” Houthi rebels are asking for repair guarantees before experts carry out maintenance on a rusty tanker carrying millions of gallons of oil that has been stuck in a Yemeni port for over five years.

The Safer is an oil tanker that has been moored in the Red Sea off the Yemeni coast, near the port of Hodeidah, for over five years, since the conflict began when Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa, prompting an intervention by Saudi-led military forces.

The vessel’s hull is rusting and has deteriorated so much that fears are growing that it could begin leaking, catch fire or even explode, according to local media.

Such an incident could cause an environmental disaster four times bigger than the Exxon Valdez situation on the Alaskan coast in 1989, the United Nations warned on 15th July 2020.

The United Nations have been asking the Houthis to allow experts access to the ship since 2019.

But talks about how to proceed have been thwarted, with Farhan Haq, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, saying at a press conference in New York on Monday (26th July): “The big point of dispute, really, is that (the Houthis) want an agreement in advance to perform light maintenance, and they want the light maintenance activities to be mentioned in the (November 2020) mission plan.”

He added: “We’re continuing to negotiate. We can’t provide those advanced guarantees (because of) the lack of safety aboard the ship. If it is safe, we are definitely willing to do light maintenance activities. First, we need to make sure it is safe.”

He also said: “The Safer is a very dangerous site and advance guarantees before verifying conditions on board are not possible. That is why the November 2020 agreement explicitly conditions the light maintenance activities on the safety environment we find on board.”

While the UN would like to see the situation resolved, it has stressed that it needs to be able to carry out basic safety assessments before maintenance work can begin.

Speaking about the maintenance work, Haq added “that we hope it will buy more time for a longer-term solution. We also remain open-minded regarding any other safe and quick solutions to the problem.”

In November 2020, United Nations and the Houthis came to an agreement that will allow an international team of experts to access the Safer by January 2021 to inspect it and eventually repair it.

But this operation has been met with delays after the Houthis did not provide a letter that would guarantee the safety of the team. Since then, the talks appear to be caught in a catch-22.