A un recognized government in tripoli or the u. A. E. Egypt and russia. Are. Also in floods of forced more than 1000000 people from their homes in northeast india red alerts remain in place across are some states and rescue teams have dispatched hundreds of boats Health Officials say at least 72 people have been killed over the flooding is seasonal Emergency Services have been put under greater pressure by the pen demick. And police have arrested a man after a fire at a cathedral in the french city of mold the blaze destroyed stained glass windows and the organ of the singer in st pauls cathedral the building is 600 years old. But the headlines more news here on aljazeera right after inside story do stay with us. On counting the cost cold war true could the u. S. Break hong kong spread to the. Currency shot turkey at war in libya and syria and president putin hope to kick start the economy this year but i wouldnt pay for his big plans. Counting the cost on aljazeera. Already embroiled in a war for years d in yemen faces an unprecedented environmental disaster a damaged Oil Storage Facility is now really threatening marine life in the red sea who is to blame and can catastrophe be averted before its too late this is inside story. Hello there and welcome to the program im Laura Carlisle years of civil war have torn yemen apart the fighting has divided the cities destroyed the economy and triggered the worlds worst humanitarian crisis now the country is also on the verge of an environmental disaster for 5 years the fleecing Storage Facilities suffer has lain idle off the coast on border more than 1100000 barrels of oil as yemens who the rebels battle with the saudi backed government for control of the country the facility has been left to rust United Nations as described old the who fees who control the area where the facility is permanently mord have only recently allowed access to the u. N. Theyve given promises before that theyve since gone back on. The uns top relief official mark local says the who things have engaged in a protracted bureaucratic minuet of permissions to visit being sought apparently being granted and then turning out in fact not to have been granted he says there who feel thirtys have an important opportunity here to take steps that will spare millions of their fellow citizens from yet another tragedy. So how much of a tragedy are we talking about well with more than 48000000 gallons of oil on board a breach in the ship has the potential to cause a spill 4 times the size of the 989 exxon valdez disaster in alaska it would affect 1600000 yemenis who depend on the red sea for food and trade the majority of them already rely on humanitarian aid in terms of ecology 1200. 00 species of fish would be endangered by a spill 10 percent of which exists nowhere else in the world and 115. 00 islands could lose their biodiversity as well as the use of their ports thank. You lets bring in our guests now to discuss this further and from washington d. C. We have William Lawrence professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the American University hes a former u. S. Diplomat in the state departments ocean and Environment Bureau from sana in yemen Hussein Albert k. T. A pro who 3 journalist and from beirut we have seen the executive director of greenpeace middle East North Africa region thank you all very much for joining us hussein theyve been warnings about this ship for years why have the who sees not let the u. N. On board to assess it. Actually the one who doesnt let. Maintenance teams of the ship not to maintain the ship in a Good Condition is the Saudi Coalition since the war against them and they have forced. On yemen. They didnt allow the men to the mental in teams that have been working on the ship some of them. Eighties to reach their ship to keep keepin it like in Good Condition another one in 2016 so didnt allow a fuel in ship called the rama with more than 30 with with these a shipment to reach the ships to the ship can stay running thats why i think the old blame its toward saudi arabia but the main problem now because there is a system in the ship called. God system this should be running all the time the system have to make sure that the bible is from the oil which is carbone doesnt build up and mix with this is really a mobile and thats why i think now is very very dangerous to extract any oil from this ship it have to go under maintenance which will cost more than 10000000. 00 but the United States and. Im going to jump in just like i said i know why this is why the ship is in this condition and we will get back to to to bring up this point again but i just want to clarify this point as to why the un has not been allowed to assess the situation which has been asking to do for years. Look they united the United Nations are not allowing the maintenance of the ship to go there the United Nation has a choose chosen an Asian Company i dont i think from a malaysia to check this ship and this company has no. Experience in checking ships in so dangerous condition so you. And i we have a situation is that why the why the that why youve not been granting permission yes this is exactly because he doesnt are they have requested from the United Nation to bring i think that is known like a company that can own. The whole console so. Dangerous situation ok so the movies have recently granted the u. N. Permission theyre hoping to get on board in the next couple of weeks will that go ahead. Yes of course if they have been granted that this access to they said they will go ahead to the access they said but they say if there is an agreement they have signed was sign are that then they needed nations should stick to this agreement ok i believe that the United Nations i actually they will try to find any any excuse not to check the ship ok william what do you think of that the United Nations is not actually interested in checking the ship some sort of conspiracy it seems hussein is suggesting going on here. No the un is seized with this issue and no more so than the last week u. N. Is frustrated because as you and your guests noted there are several times where the u. N. Has been granted position and then under it position often on technical issues such as the one that was just mentioned about the dissatisfaction with the company that was being used and theres been other types of blockages as well i think its worth noting that this location is right on the front lines of the front of the peninsula thats controlled by all sides in the conflict and there definitely will so many and the forces so it back to the forces right there that can prevent the other side from approaching in fact at one point that yes maybe yes maybe represent some other belligerent want to approach the ship but was afraid that it would d be theyve been pushed back by the evil forces and so this is an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen but problem now solutions are political diplomatic pressure at the u. N. Is ramping up this week because of the leakage of water into one of the storms which makes the situation more dire they know this potential for an oil spill is projected to be 4 times the size of exxon valdez disaster back in 1989 can you give us a sense of what that means basically an environmental disaster on the larger scale you could think off that at sea is a closely so and in oil span of that scale and well take not trust lots of dollars to be fixed but as well many many many years and the impact is is more than an Environmental Impact you will have a humanitarian impact affecting mostly unfortunately the yemeni people right because i misspoke. In that area will affect the marry an environment the fisherman life the fish that the yemeni people are relying on as their source of food in the current conflict that is driving humanitarian disaster so we are looking and impact on the entire what ive seen on the coast of many countries not just yemen so thats why we are all of us as an environmentalist raising that and a lot of on this because we cannot just wait for it to happen we need to do effort to prevent this disaster from even being considered because depending on when the disaster happened and the current occurrence and the sea impact can reach all the way to the subways konar or even the state of her so the impact is really massive and not just yemen will be impacted and not just the yemeni people so thats why we are raising all this and for us its so important that we keep we start acting fast and we prioritize this issue because its been ongoing for too long and there is a threat that the ship can explode because. As hosain said the system the boiler system had stopped producing inert gas that is protecting the oil and the cargo thanks and if that basically continue as it is and we are now in a Summer Season you know the potential for blowing and fires are much much higher so you know this is really a risk that we should really not just sit and wait for it to happen whos saying given that this is such an enormous disaster waiting to happen and that it is potentially imminent is it not time to put aside politics and allow any u. N. Team to get on board assess the damage and assess what needs to be done next. Yeah i totally agree with you but as youre a guest have said now about the ship and they got has been built where it could the ship could explode thats why here in sanaa they have requested United Nations to bring. Will known team because they do want if anything will happen to their ship if they bring anyone who has no experience and something bad will have been there and the ship will explode im sure that the United Nations straightaway will directly blame and blame the hoti and just i want to add that when you ask your guest about what i said about the United Nation is a conspiracy is a kind of conspiracy about the United Nation it is not and i can prove it in one sentence we remember that the United Nations have removed from a shameless for killing children because it was what they say of the saudi would try to cut to cut the funds so so you could do the same with the United Nations they could just. Tell them that they can unite the United Nation cant just keep blaming the holy but the main point is that for the last 5 years 6 years since the war started no one has to have the chance to go to that she even said that he meant instead of the she did the blame goes to. The coalition and saudi backed forces just dont add if you let me to fall to distract the oil you need they should have to go through maintenance that will cost 12000000. 00 so what the United Nation is asking for are 2 babies 12000000 but when they going to sell this this all will get all the money going to go to how the government and we know that all oil. Company and feels is in the hands of the saudi backed forces thats why they are the model sponsible to pay for this on the on the one of the sponsible ok money let me tell you when russians. Helis the announcements and the salvage operation and also the oil revenue both issues i will come back to you in just a moment i want to just pick up on one point that you mentioned before about blame if nobody gets on board and there is either an oil spill or an explosion who say this will be on the hoof is watch the who will be blamed they will lose any claim to legitimacy. I mean i know because you know most of the International Media and the United Nation there are. By saudi. Point the whole thing is a little money so you control permission to get access to the ship no is this how the as well knows not to allow in ok here is that youre not allowed to 5 already. And you know how when these are ok is access to the ship granted by both who feeds and saudis in this scenario william. Simplest way to put a very complicated situation is both sides are on paper allowing International Access and bull sides have forces that can prevent International Access conditions are such that they want instant happen this will pay for it issues very critical and a major part of the thinking on that side because you have what used to be 80000000. 00 perhaps now 40000000000. 00 worth of oil again the proceeds of which they wouldnt see and so as weve been seeing in the recent days and weeks that the whole situations being politicized but its also being monetized people look at who wins economically from all of this i think. Weve been calling it tanker is starting to really really is that its an offshore storage an awful ot the silly leak that represents yemens Largest Oil Company the pipeline it goes through there and the like the end of the economy and its all sitting right there on the coast so theres not on the issue of this disaster well ship possible d the allusion but also the larger question of who controls the oil the oil well whos responsible and who gets the benefit all of these things are in play which is why your line of question is so important because we have to deal with the short term environmental catastrophe in the making while at the scene im looking at all of these larger d issues so if we look at the quality of the oil and the revenue that one policy or other might get from it is that really at this stage in time such a big issue because theres been suggestions that the quality of the i would have dropped so much that its not even going to come of the costs of its extraction. Well certainly the price crashes made that less important but even if its worth as as i got my sources say close to 40000000 down from 80000000 and you have a 12 new dock cost as your guest so thats a significant trade up there but i dont think its really about the money itself its also about the responsibility of the payments and also who gets the revenues and who gets the future revenues let me also just and you talked about the quality of the oil its a tip but its a type of oil called light which is very light weight oil which itself is problematic its a sweet oil that has very high value when the prices of oil is up but also if we have an environmental catastrophe because its too late some of it will evaporate very quickly but the rest of it will spread very quickly across the Ocean Surface and have a much more devastating where im alone and that theyre not have your oil in the who are not are more easily d so that so i know you were asking about this but its important to know that the quality of the world itself has an impact on the states were looking at were looking at one of the biggest environments on the tab strip is our lifetime if it comes to snow its a hugely important point and its one that i want to stick with for a moment they know a clean up operation you mentioned before and as william was saying the oil is a light oil that consent to be you monger us for many many many years and its its its not worth it to even consider going into a blame game as a force to really get our what had around and they go. And give a mandate for the International Community because clearly and this is a point of the ship has a future point of decaying that you do need special expertise to do and what the expertise that is not available in yemen right so the International Community and your weapon has a duty of care here. Interfere and put all resources knew and both parties of the conflict has a duty as well to basically facilitate access to human people to their sources to equipment to contend us before it actually blow up in our faces hussein these have a duty here whats your response to that. Of course i mean is it one has a duty but we only hear in all the media and the United Nations and the only head of the whole of the namely they dont even say that their call is happening in yemen as a little i want to just want to point. Out. The data port weve not even mentioned that this is a crucial lifeline for 2 thirds of the yemeni population if there was an oil spill that would close could you give us an idea of the impact that would have. I mean the impact i can just. Quote mr. Security of the United States when he said that millions of lives will be. Damage especially. Ports in yemen would it will bring countries where is there a you know the African Union where is the e. U. Where is the u. S. Why is everyone not speaking out about this and trying to get access to the ship. Well theres many reasons but i think that the simple way to say it is everyones been asleep or everyones been distracted by all of the other issues that theyre confronting and this is one that you can put on the back burner because its not exploding today but its not massively leaky today although we have at the king or from the ship let me also just add to what you said that the cleanup would not be millions if we believe and the cost of that cleanup would go to the International Community to the Senate Government clearly and that i know the people of the issues i work of that there are not hoping for any disasters in. The fall. People and also very importantly they have access to the worlds best experts in this area now its a militarized zone so it would have to provide safe passage for both navies both the military forces to get there but you can easily absolution team a place on the team the type of expertise that the sun a government is lookin