The US Central Command confirmed on Sunday that the British ship “Rubimar” sank in the Red Sea after it was hit by a Houthi ballistic missile on February 18.
She said in a statement on the “X” platform that the ship “Rubimar” was carrying approximately 21,000 metric tons of ammonium sulfate fertilizer, which poses an environmental hazard in the Red Sea.
She added that the sunken ship exposes other ships passing through the Red Sea to the risk of colliding with it.
In the first incident of its kind since the Houthi escalation in the Red Sea, the Yemeni government announced yesterday, Saturday, that the cargo ship “Rubimar”, which was targeted by the group last month, sank in the Red Sea, warning of an environmental disaster. The crisis cell formed by the Yemeni government to deal with the ship crisis indicated that the outcome was expected due to the ship abandoning its fate for more than 12 days and not responding to the Yemeni government’s appeals to avoid the disaster.
The cell said that it is in permanent session to study the next steps and determine the best ways to deal with the repercussions and address the environmental disaster resulting from the accident.
However, a media spokesman affiliated with the Houthis ruled out that the group had re-targeted the sunken British ship, based on the fact that the group had not announced this re-targeting.
Tawfiq Al-Humairi, the media advisor to the Houthi Ministry of Information, said in a special statement to the Arab World News Agency (AWP), that there could be another party that targeted it, pointing the finger of blame at the United States, which he considered the first accused according to his description.
He also considered that accusing the group of re-targeting the ship before it sank was “an attempt to mix up the cards to create chaos” and thwart an offer that the Houthis had made to allow the ship to be recovered in exchange for bringing aid into the Gaza Strip, as he put it.
He believed that it was an attempt to accuse the group of a crime they had committed, he said, referring to the international forces present in the Red Sea.
He added, “We fully realize that the Americans are the first of these accused parties. If the targeting is in the service of Israel, this is not excluded.”
He also explained this by saying, “There was an offer made to the British and to the mediators as well, and the last thing that was presented was to the State of Qatar, as a mediating country, that the ship could be recovered if aid trucks were allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, and therefore there are those who want to thwart this deal if it enters the Gaza Strip.” Negotiation space.
Muhammad Ali Al-Houthi, a leader of the group, held British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak responsible for the sinking of the ship “Rubimar.”
It is noteworthy that the targeting of the British ship last month caused an 18-mile-long oil spill in the Red Sea, amid fears of toxic substances leaking from the ship’s cargo of 41,000 tons of fertilizer.
