Arab states urge Houthis to allow UN to assess oil tanker

Several countries wrote a joint letter addressed to the UN Security Council (UNSC) on March 19 urging the UNSC to increase pressure on the al Houthi movement to allow the UN to inspect a Yemeni oil tanker docked at al Hudaydah port in al Hudaydah governorate in western Yemen.

UN ambassadors from Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the internationally recognized Yemeni government stated in the letter that the inspection is necessary to prevent an oil leak or explosion in the Red Sea that could damage the environment and increase the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

The oil tanker docked at the port has served as a terminal to store and offload Yemeni oil since March 2015.