Shippers wary of Red Sea routes despite Houthi pledge to end targeting
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Big shipping companies say they won’t send vessels back to the Red Sea despite a pledge by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen not to attack them as long as a cease-fire in Gaza holds. The world’s top three container shippers, MSC Mediterranean Shipping, A.P.
Moller-Maersk and CMA CGM, in recent days said they would stick with other routes given what they called the unpredictable situation in Gaza and broader tensions in the Middle East. “You don’t want to send a gas carrier that will go up in flames," said Nils Haupt, spokesman for Germany’s biggest shipper, Hapag-Lloyd. “We don’t know when we will be returning." For more than a year, the Houthis have used missiles and drones to target commercial ships and naval vessels sent to protect them in the Red Sea, once one of the world’s busiest trade routes.
Shippers have taken to sending vessels around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa instead. The Houthis have attacked more than 100 vessels in the Red Sea since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked the war in Gaza.
In an email to shippers, the Houthis said they wouldn’t attack U.S. and British vessels while a cease-fire was in effect. The group also this month released 25 crew members of the cargo vessel Galaxy Leader, which they had seized in November 2023.
The rebels, however, said they would still target Israeli vessels. The Houthis in the past have attacked ships that they have claimed to be Israeli but which have had limited or no ties to Israel. Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said the group could resume its attacks if the cease-fire agreement fails.
Read more on livemint.com
