Greek tanker blaze: Red Sea faces dire environmental threat
8:22 AM EDT, August 25, 2024
The Greek tanker Sounion, attacked by Houthi fighters, is on fire. There are 150,000 metric tons of oil on board. The U.S. State Department warned of a potential environmental disaster in the Red Sea. Fires broke out on the damaged, drifting ship on Friday.
Sounion was attacked on Wednesday about 87 miles west of the Yemeni port of Al-Hudaya. The tanker crew was picked up on Thursday by a French destroyer sent as part of the EU mission Aspides. According to Greek authorities, none of the 25 crew members were injured.
The Houthis’ continued attacks threaten to spill a million barrels of oil into the Red Sea. Through these attacks, the Houthis have made clear they are willing to destroy the fishing industry and regional ecosystems that Yemenis and other communities in the region rely on for their livelihoods, just as they have undermined the delivery of vital humanitarian aid to the region through their reckless attacks, wrote the State Department in a statement.
"We call on the Houthis to cease these actions immediately and urge other nations to step forward to help avert this environmental disaster," it added.
The Aspides mission also warned of the threat of an "environmental hazard" in the Red Sea areas on Saturday. A statement on platform X noted that no fire was visible on the shelled tanker on Thursday, but the ship was on fire the next day.
"This situation underlines that these kinds of attacks pose not only a threat against the freedom of navigation but also to the lives of seafarers, the environment, and subsequently the life of all citizens living in that region,” wrote the Aspides mission.
Rebels attack with missiles and drones
As recalled by the AP agency, since the outbreak of the Gaza Strip war in October last year, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have attacked about 80 ships with missiles and drones, seized one ship, and sunk two. As a result of their attacks, four sailors lost their lives.
The Houthis justified the attack on Sounion by claiming that Delta Tankers violated the ban on "entry to the ports of occupied Palestine." Meanwhile, Delta Tankers assures it is doing everything possible to move the ship and the cargo. For safety reasons, it does not comment on the matter.
According to data from the NGO ITOPF, the largest recorded oil spill from a ship occurred in 1979. The tanker Atlantic Empress collided with another vessel during a storm off the coast of Tobago, spilling approximately 317,000 tons of oil into the Caribbean Sea.
