Decaying Yemen tanker no longer a ‘ticking time bomb’ after 1m barrels of oil removed by UN-led team
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Though the UN operation means the immediate threat of an environmental catastrophe has been averted, a second phase is is still needed to clean and scrap the vessel
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UN Development Program chief tells Arab news he hopes the fact opposing sides came together to resolve the problem might lay groundwork for talks on wider issues
The UN on Friday said the imminent threat of a massive oil spill in the Red Sea had been averted, after more than a million barrels of oil were successfully transferred to a salvage ship from the Safer, a decaying storage vessel moored off the coast of Yemen for years that had been described as a “ticking time bomb.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the successful completion of this phase of the operation, saying that it had “avoided what could have been a monumental environmental and humanitarian catastrophe.”
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