Two major container shipping companies, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd AG, announced on Friday they are pausing all transit through the Red Sea due to the frequency of Houthi attacks. Two oil tanker corporations also announced they are working toward getting approval to reroute their ships around Cape of Good Hope if they receive reports of danger in the Red Sea going forward.
A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, which is considered the second-largest container ship owner in the world, made a public statement on Friday that they had told all their units currently en route to the Red Sea to halt. They were shortly thereafter followed by the German-based shipping company Hapag-Lloyd AG, which said they were halting their voyages until Monday and “then will decide for the period after.”
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Maersk was pushed to make the call due to their vessel “Maersk Gibraltar” almost getting attacked on Thursday. “Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice,” Maersk’s statement read.
The Houthis claimed credit for an allegedly successful drone attack on the Maersk vessel. According to Maersk, however their vessel was targeted but not hit; nevertheless, Maersk is concerned for the safety of its crews. “The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the area are alarming and pose a significant threat to the safety and security of seafarers,” it wrote.
As Valuetainment has previously reported, Houthi militants have been attacking and hijacking ships traveling to and from the Suez Canal off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea. Their stated reason is to retaliate against the United States and its global allies for supporting Israel in its war against Islamist terrorist group Hamas. The Houthis even attacked an American warship in early December.
In response to the situation, White House National Security Council spokesman Eduardo Maia Silva said: “[the U.S.] will continue to consider options and take coordinated, multilateral action to confront these unacceptable threats and attacks in the Red Sea.”
Watch Patrick Bet-David talk about the importance of the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal and more below or read a text version of the video here.
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