News - Yemen: The head of the Supervisory Committee for the Execution of the Urgent Maintenance Agreement and the Comprehensive Evaluation of the Floating Oil Tank Safer, Ibrahim Al-Seraji, confirmed that the United Nations had not submitted the operational plan stipulated in the memorandum of understanding, despite the lapse of more than a month since its signing.

Al-Sarji explained, in a statement, that the memorandum of understanding stipulated that the United Nations prepare an operational plan, in accordance with the contents of the memorandum, but that has not happened so far.

He pointed out that the delay in the delivery of the operational plan is not a positive indication of the commitment of the United Nations to what was agreed upon.

The head of the committee also stressed that the Safer reservoir is in a state of continuous deterioration that calls for expediting the implementation of commitments to prevent a potential disaster in the Red Sea.

Earlier, The Supervisory Committee for the Execution of the Urgent Maintenance Agreement and the Comprehensive Evaluation of the Floating Oil Tank Safer, has renewed its strong dissatisfaction with the continued disregard by the United Nations of its obligations towards the reservoir. The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) continued to disavow the implementation of the urgent maintenance agreement and the comprehensive evaluation of the floating tank Safer, which was signed in November 2020.

In a statement, the committee warned of the repercussions of the deterioration of the situation of the Safer Reservoir after nearly seven years without any maintenance of the reservoir, which makes the level of an environmental disaster in the Red Sea more significant than ever, which will affect Yemen and neighboring countries for many years. 

The UNOPS submitted its implementation plan in violation of the agreement last May; completely ignoring the agreement and its obligations towards the Safer reservoir, despite knowing that the status of the reservoir could no longer tolerate further delays.

While the committee called for the immediate implementation of the agreement, it holds the UNOPS fully responsible for any leak or explosion of the reservoir, and the resulting unprecedented environmental disaster in the Red Sea. "The responsibility to squander the funds allocated to implement the agreement, which the United Nations Office for Project Services refuses to disclose and its fate, despite the multiple demands directed at it to work on the principle of transparency before public opinion."

UN spent more than 3 and a half million dollars out of the maintenance budget of more than 9 million dollars and no work was carried out.

Sana'a is keen to implement the maintenance agreement:

The head of the Safer Maintenance Committee, Ibrahim  Al-Seraji, confirmed that Sana'a had no interest in obstructing the agreement and maintenance, denying that there were any intentions to use the ship for a military purpose, and that these allegations were false. Al-Seraji pointed out that there was a proposal that the oil inside the ship be sold and payment is paid to the Central Bank in Sana'a under the supervision of the United Nations to pay the salaries of the state employees, but the coalition party refused this and wanted the payment to be given to the mercenaries in Aden. "This is kind of crazy, if they think we'll hand them the ship and give them money to fight us with," he said.

He asserted that they always have access to the ship and get updates through their technical teams. He expressed his fear that deterioration of the ship is getting worse and technical teams would not be able to fix it.