Yemeni Official Urges Intensified Pressure on Houthi Rebels to Resolve Safer Oil Tanker Crisis

(MENAFN - Saudi Press Agency) Aden, May 22, 2021, SPA -- Yemen's Information, Culture and Tourism Minister Muammar Al-Eryani had urged the international community and the UN Security Council's Permanent Members to step up intensified pressure on the terrorist Houthi militia to solve the issue of the FSO Safer oil tanker and avert a large-scale environmental, humanitarian and economic crisis which, he described as the ''the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe that will hit millions of people for tens of years to come.'' In a statement carried by the Yemen News Agency (Saba), the Yemeni minister said that the talks about a new round of negotiations between the UN and the Iran-backed Houthi militia on the FSO Safer oil tanker will fail, citing similar previous talks and incidents which, he said, have proved the Houthi rebels'' use of the oil tanker as a tool of political blackmail. Al-Eryani said that all UN's endeavors to resolve the issue of the Safer oil tanker and avert a possible environmental catastrophe have failed as a result of the Iran-backed Houthi militia's stubborn position and their continued obstruction of the UN mission to inspect the oil tanker. --SPA 14:40 LOCAL TIME 11:40 GMT 0012 MENAFN22052021000078011016ID1102115735