Iran, Sweden Call for End to Crisis in Yemen

Iranian Foreign Minister’s Assistant for Special Political Affairs Ali Asqar Khaji and Sweden’s Special Envoy for Yemen Peter Semneby underlined the need for putting an end to the crisis in Yemen. During the meeting on Tuesday, the two sides discussed the areas of joint cooperation between Iran and Sweden to help resolve the crisis in Yemen and ways to end the humanitarian catastrophe in that country as soon as possible. They also discussed the removal of the siege against the Yemeni people, establishing a ceasefire, and eliminating the risk of oil spills from the SAFER tanker. Due to the ongoing conflict in Yemen, all production and export operations related to FSO SAFER have been suspended, but an estimated 150,000 MT (nearly 1.1 million barrels) of crude oil remain onboard. This corresponds to four times the amount spilled during the Exxon Valdez incident in 1989, even though circumstances differ greatly.