Houthis say rescue of burning Red Sea oil tanker begins Sunday

Houthis say rescue of burning Red Sea oil tanker begins Sunday
A satellite view shows smoke and flames rising from the Sounion oil tanker on the Red Sea, August 29, 2024. (Maxar Technologies/Reuters)
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Updated 01 September 2024
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Houthis say rescue of burning Red Sea oil tanker begins Sunday

Houthis say rescue of burning Red Sea oil tanker begins Sunday
  • The Greek-flagged Sounion, carrying 150,000 tonnes of crude oil, has been abandoned since late last month after a Houthi assault destroyed its engine and caused a fire

AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: Yemen’s Houthi militia said that rescue ships and tugboats will begin recovering a burning oil tanker in the Red Sea on Sunday, as experts warn that time is running out to avoid a calamity as a fire on the vessel spreads.

The Greek-flagged Sounion, carrying 150,000 tonnes of crude oil, has been abandoned since late last month after a Houthi assault destroyed its engine and caused a fire, presenting a hazard to the maritime environment and commerce.

In a post on X on Saturday, Houthi Foreign Minister Jamal Amer said that the tugboats will reach and recover the tanker on Sunday, bolstering hopes of averting a major disaster in the Red Sea.

Since November, the Houthis have attacked commercial and navy ships in the Red Sea and other waters near Yemen with ballistic missiles, drones and boat drones, claiming to be acting in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

It comes as maritime experts and the EU naval mission in the Red Sea urged immediate and comprehensive international action to rescue the Sounion in order to avoid an environmental and shipping catastrophe in the Red Sea, which would affect Yemen and other Red Sea countries.

“MV Sounion represents a huge environmental risk that will affect all countries bordering the Red Sea,” the EU naval mission, known as EUNAVFOR ASPIDES, said in a post on X on Sunday.

Wim Zwijnenburg of the Humanitarian Disarmament Project at the Dutch peace organization PAX told Arab News on Sunday, citing recent satellite images, that the fire on the oil tanker is spreading because of the recent Houthi use of explosives onboard, which could damage the ship’s hull and cause the Sounion to sink.

“The fires and heat will lead to a deterioration of the structural integrity of the hull, which can have catastrophic consequences, with a wider environmental fallout for the Red Sea and coastal communities,” he said.

“The situation is getting more critical by the day. The fires are not contained and affect the pressure on the hull, which could lead to an explosion and sinking of the entire ship, with the remaining crude oil spreading.”

In addition to the Sounion, the Houthis have destroyed two commercial ships in the Red Sea since the start of their campaign, including the Belize-flagged and Lebanese-operated MV Rubymar, which was carrying 22,000 tonnes of ammonium phosphate-sulfate NPS fertilizer and more than 200 tonnes of fuel.

Zwijnenburg said that the explosion or leaking of the ship and its cargo would have a catastrophic impact on the marine and coastal environment, as well as people’s livelihoods in Yemen and Eritrea, adding that the salvage operation would begin by extinguishing the fire and transferring the ship’s cargo to another vessel.

“A salvage operation with security presence must be set up to stop the fires, tow the vessel to a safe area and transfer the contents to another tanker,” Zwijnenburg said.

Experts also warned that the Houthis may be exploiting the rescue operation as a bargaining chip to put pressure on the international community, as they did with the FSO Safer oil tanker off Yemen’s western city of Hodeidah.

According to Noam Raydan, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the US should immediately waive sanctions on regional tugboat companies and deploy international naval forces around the ship to prevent the Houthis from disrupting the operation.

She also called for international naval forces be prevent the Houthis from returning to ships and sinking them.

“Experience has shown that the group is willing to interfere with salvage efforts if they can turn the situation into a political bargaining chip — as seen most prominently during the protracted mission to empty the FSO Safer,” she said in an article published on the think tank’s website on Aug. 29.

Despite worldwide outcry over the devastating Houthi strikes on ships, the group’s
military spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, claimed responsibility on Saturday night for a new missile attack on the Liberian-flagged merchant ship MV Groton in the Gulf of Aden, vowing to continue the campaign.

US Central Command said on Sunday morning that its forces had destroyed a drone and a drone boat in Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen.


INSIGHT-Houthis warn shipowners in new phase of Red Sea campaign: Prepare to be attacked

INSIGHT-Houthis warn shipowners in new phase of Red Sea campaign: Prepare to be attacked
Updated 4 sec ago
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INSIGHT-Houthis warn shipowners in new phase of Red Sea campaign: Prepare to be attacked

INSIGHT-Houthis warn shipowners in new phase of Red Sea campaign: Prepare to be attacked
  • Houthis have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November
  • Greek-owned ships comprise nearly 30 percent of the attacks carried out by Houthi forces
ATHENS/LONDON: On a warm spring night in Athens, shortly before midnight, a senior executive at a Greek shipping company noticed an unusual email had landed in his personal inbox.
The message, which was also sent to the manager’s business email address, warned that one of the company’s vessels traveling through the Red Sea was at risk of being attacked by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militia.
The Greek-managed ship had violated a Houthi-imposed transit ban by docking at an Israeli port and would be “directly targeted by the Yemeni Armed Forces in any area they deem appropriate,” read the message, written in English and reviewed by Reuters.
“You bear the responsibility and consequences of including the vessel in the ban list,” said the email, signed by the Yemen-based Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOCC), a body set up in February to liaise between Houthi forces and commercial shipping operators.
The Houthis have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November, acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s year-long war in Gaza. They have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.
The email, received at the end of May, warned of “sanctions” for the entire company’s fleet if the vessel continued “to violate the ban criteria and enter the ports of the usurping Israeli entity.”
The executive and the company declined to be named for safety reasons.
The warning message was the first of more than a dozen increasingly menacing emails sent to at least six Greek shipping companies since May amid rising geopolitical tension in the Middle East, according to six industry sources with direct knowledge of the emails and two with indirect knowledge.
Since last year, the Houthis have been firing missiles, sending armed drones and launching boats laden with explosives at commercial ships with ties to Israeli, US and UK entities.
The email campaign, which has not been previously reported, indicates that Houthi rebels are casting their net wider and targeting Greek merchant ships with little or no connection to Israel.
The threats were also, for the first time in recent months, directed at entire fleets, increasing the risks for those vessels still trying to cross the Red Sea.
“Your ships breached the decision of Yemen Armed Forces,” read a separate email sent in June from a Yemeni government web domain to the first company weeks later and to another Greek shipping company, which also declined to be named. “Therefore, punishments will be imposed on all vessels of your company ... Best Regards, Yemen Navy.”
Yemen, which lies at the entrance to the Red Sea, has been embroiled in years of civil war. In 2014, the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and ousted the internationally recognized government. In January, the United States put the Houthis back on its list of terrorist groups.
Contacted by Reuters, Houthi officials declined to confirm they had sent the emails or provide any additional comment, saying that was classified military information.
Reuters could not determine whether the emails had been also sent to other foreign shipping companies.
Greek-owned ships, which represent one of the largest fleets in the world, comprise nearly 30 percent of the attacks carried out by Houthi forces to early September, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data that did not specify whether those ships had any ties with Israel.
In August, the Houthi militia — which is part of Iran’s Axis of Resistance alliance of anti-Israel irregular armed groups — attacked the Sounion tanker leaving it on fire for weeks before it could be towed to a safer area.
The strikes have prompted many cargoes to take a much longer route around Africa. Traffic through the Suez Canal has fallen from around 2,000 transits per month before November 2023 to around 800 in August, Lloyd’s List Intelligence data showed.
Tensions in the Middle East reached a new peak on Tuesday as Iran hit Israel with more than 180 missiles in retaliation for the killing of militant leaders in Lebanon, including Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday.

New Phase
The European Union’s naval force Aspides, which has helped more than 200 ships to sail safely through the Red Sea, confirmed the evolution of Houthis’ tactics in a closed door meeting with shipping companies in early September, according to a document reviewed by Reuters.
In the document, shared with shipping companies, Aspides said the Houthis’ decision to extend warnings to entire fleets marked the beginning of the “fourth phase” of their military campaign in the Red Sea.
Aspides also urged ship owners to switch off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders, which shows a vessel’s position and acts as a navigational aid to nearby ships, saying they had to “shut it off or be shot.”
Aspides said the Houthis’ missile strikes had 75 percent accuracy when aimed at vessels operating with the AIS tracking system on. But 96 percent of attacks missed when AIS was off, according to the same briefing.
Aspides did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The Houthis’ email campaign began in February with messages sent to shipowners, insurance companies and the main seafarers union from HOCC.
These initial emails, two of which were seen by Reuters, alerted the industry the Houthis had imposed a Red Sea travel ban on certain vessels, although they did not explicitly warn companies of an imminent attack.
The messages sent after May were more menacing.
At least two Greek-operated shipping companies that received email threats have decided to end such journeys via the Red Sea, two sources with direct knowledge told Reuters, declining to identify the companies for security reasons.
An executive at a third shipping company, which has also received a letter, said they decided to end business with Israel in order to be able to continue to use the Red Sea route.
“If safe transit through the Red Sea cannot be guaranteed, companies have a duty to act – even if that means delaying their delivery windows,” said Stephen Cotton, General Secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, the leading union organization for seafarers, which received an email from HOCC in February. “The lives of the seafarers depend on it.”
The email campaign has increased alarm among shipping companies. Insurance costs for Western ship owners’ have already jumped because of the Houthi’s attacks, with some insurers suspending cover altogether, the sources told Reuters.
Greece-based Conbulk Shipmanagement Corporation stopped Red Sea voyages after its vessel MV Groton was attacked twice in August.
“No (Conbulk) vessel is trading in the Red Sea. It mainly has to do with the crew safety. Once the crew is in danger, all the discussion stops,” Conbulk Shipmanagement CEO Dimitris Dalakouras told a Capital Link shipping conference in London on Sept. 10.
Torben Kolln, managing director of German-based container shipping group Leonhardt & Blumberg, said the Red Sea and wider Gulf of Aden was a “no go” area for their fleet.
Contacted by Reuters, the companies did not respond to a request for comment on whether they had been targeted by the Houthi email campaign.
Some companies continue to cross the Red Sea due to binding long-term agreements with charterers or because they need to transfer goods in that particular area.
The Red Sea remains the fastest way to bring goods to consumers in Europe and Asia.
The Houthis have not stopped all traffic and the majority of Chinese and Russian-owned ships — which they do not see as affiliated with Israel — are able to sail through unhindered with lower insurance costs.
“We are re-assuring the ships belonging to companies that have no connection with the Israeli enemy that they are safe and have freedom (of movement) and (to) keep the AIS devices going on all the time,” according to an audio recording of a Houthi message broadcast to ships in the Red Sea in September shared with Reuters.
“Thank you for your cooperation. Out.”

Qatar’s Emir: What is happening in region is ‘collective genocide’

Qatar’s Emir: What is happening in region is ‘collective genocide’
Updated 4 min 33 sec ago
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Qatar’s Emir: What is happening in region is ‘collective genocide’

Qatar’s Emir: What is happening in region is ‘collective genocide’
  • Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani says his country has always warned of Israel’s ‘impunity’
  • The Qatari ruler also condemned Israeli air strikes and military operations against Lebanon

DUBAI: Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said on Thursday said the crisis in the Middle East is a “collective genocide” and that his country has always warned of Israel’s “impunity.”
“It has become crystal clear that what is happening is genocide, in addition to turning the Gaza Strip into an area unfit for human habitation, in preparation for displacement,” he said during the Asia Cooperation Dialogue summit in Doha.
The Qatari Emir also condemned Israeli air strikes and military operations “against the brotherly Lebanese Republic.”
Israel strongly objects to accusations it is committing genocide in Gaza, where it launched an assault a year ago after Hamas militants attacked southern Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages. More than 41,500 Gazans have been killed during the Israeli assault, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run territory.
This week, Israel launched a ground incursion in Lebanon against the Iran-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah, which has been firing into Israel in what it says is solidarity with the Palestinians.


Iran resumes flights after attack on Israel: state media

Iran resumes flights after attack on Israel: state media
Updated 44 min 12 sec ago
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Iran resumes flights after attack on Israel: state media

Iran resumes flights after attack on Israel: state media
  • The Islamic republic launched 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday evening
  • Both domestic and international flights were grounded for security reasons

TEHRAN: Iran resumed flights at its airports on Thursday, state media said, after a brief suspension following its missile attack on Israel.
The Islamic republic launched 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday evening, marking its second-ever direct attack on its sworn enemy, following a missile and drone attack in April.
Both domestic and international flights were grounded for security reasons until 05:00 a.m. on Thursday.
Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization spokesman, Jafar Yazarloo, confirmed the resumption, citing the lifting of restrictions.
“After ensuring favorable and safe flight conditions and ending of the restrictions, airlines are allowed to carry out flight operations,” he said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has advised European airlines to avoid Iranian airspace until October 31, with the situation under ongoing review.
Similar warnings were issued for Israel and Lebanon at the weekend.


Nobel Peace Prize could honor UNRWA, ICJ, UN chief Guterres

Nobel Peace Prize could honor UNRWA, ICJ, UN chief Guterres
Updated 46 min 48 sec ago
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Nobel Peace Prize could honor UNRWA, ICJ, UN chief Guterres

Nobel Peace Prize could honor UNRWA, ICJ, UN chief Guterres
  • Prize will be announced on Oct. 11 in Oslo
  • Experts say UNRWA a potential winner, but would be controversial
OSLO/STOCKHOLM: The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), the International Court of Justice and UN chief Antonio Guterres are among the favorites for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, experts said, in a year marked by the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
Given past form, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is capable of springing a complete surprise in the Oct. 11 announcement — including not giving the prize at all.
Bookmakers have Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony in February, as a favorite to win this year’s award. But that is not possible as he cannot receive the prize posthumously.
Another bookies’ favorite, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, is unlikely to win because he is the leader of a nation at war.
Instead, with 2024 marked by the now spreading Israel-Hamas war, a Ukraine conflict in its third year and bloodshed in Sudan displacing more than 10 million, the committee may want to focus on humanitarian actors helping to relieve civilian suffering.
“UNRWA could be one such candidate. They’re doing extremely important work for civilian Palestinians that experience the sufferings of the war in Gaza,” Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, told Reuters.
A prize to UNRWA would be controversial, he added, given the allegations made by Israel that some of its staff took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel by militant group Hamas that triggered the war in Gaza.
Some countries halted their funding to UNRWA as a result of the allegations. Most donors have since resumed. In August, an internal UN investigation said that nine staff members may have been involved in the attack and have been fired.
UNRWA has said Israel is trying to have the organization disbanded. The agency, set up in 1949 in the aftermath of the war over Israel’s creation, provides humanitarian assistance to millions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

UN Secretary- general Guterres
The secretive five-strong awarding committee, appointed by the Norwegian parliament, may also want to focus on the need to bolster the international world order built after the Second World War and its crowning institution, the United Nations.
That could mean a prize to its secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, with or without its top court, the ICJ, said Asle Sveen, a historian of the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Guterres is the top symbol of the UN,” Sveen told Reuters. “(And) the ICJ’s most important duty is to ensure that international humanitarian law is applied globally.”
The ICJ has condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and called on Israel to ensure that no genocide is committed in Gaza in an ongoing case Israel has repeatedly dismissed as baseless.
But the committee could also decide that no one gets the prize, something that has happened on 19 occasions, the last time in 1972.
“Maybe this is the year in which the Nobel Peace Prize committee should simply withhold the prize and focus attention on the fact that this is a warring planet,” Dan Smith, head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, told Reuters.
Thousands of people can propose names, including former laureates, members of parliaments and university professors of history or law. Nominations are secret for 50 years, but those who nominate can choose to reveal their choices.
Some of the known nominees include the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, Pope Francis and British naturalist David Attenborough. In total 286 candidates have been nominated for this year’s prize.
Last year’s prize went to Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned Iranian women’s rights advocate, in a rebuke to Tehran’s theocratic leaders and boost for anti-government protesters.

GCC Ministerial Council condemns escalation of conflict in Lebanon and Palestine

GCC Ministerial Council condemns escalation of conflict in Lebanon and Palestine
Updated 03 October 2024
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GCC Ministerial Council condemns escalation of conflict in Lebanon and Palestine

GCC Ministerial Council condemns escalation of conflict in Lebanon and Palestine
  • Israel must end occupation, parties should ‘prioritize dialogue’
  • Conflict poses threat to peace and stability of region and world

RIYADH: The GCC’s Ministerial Council has condemned the escalation of conflict in Lebanon and Palestine and has warned that this poses a threat to regional and global security.

In a statement issued from Doha, the council called on all parties to “exercise restraint, cease violence, and prioritize dialogue,” the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.

It urged the international community “to fulfill its responsibilities to maintain security and stability in the region and to implement international legitimacy resolutions related to the area.”

This comes in the wake of Tel Aviv attacking militant targets in Lebanon, and the ongoing conflict in occupied Gaza and the West Bank, Yemen, Iraq and within Israel itself.

The escalation has raised fears that the US and Iran would be sucked into the conflict.

The council reaffirmed the GCC’s support for Lebanon and its people, and called for urgent humanitarian assistance to “alleviate the suffering of civilians and protect them from any serious repercussions.”

It also stressed the necessity of implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701, related international resolutions and the Taif Agreement.

This would “restore lasting security and stability in Lebanon and ensure respect for the integrity of its territory, political independence, and sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders.”

On Palestine, the council again called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the lifting of the blockade and the release of hostages and detainees.

The council emphasized “the importance of opening all crossings immediately and unconditionally.”

This would ensure “the delivery of all relief, humanitarian, medical supplies, and basic needs to the residents of Gaza in accordance with international law and international humanitarian law.”

It emphasized the “importance of deescalation, exercising maximum restraint, and preventing further instability and the dangers of wars and destruction and their effects on the peoples of the region and the world.”