Yemen Monitor / Newsroom /Agencies:
Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, announced on Sunday that it will stop sending some of its vessels through the Red Sea, signaling that the repercussions of the conflict between Iran on one side and the United States and Israel on the other have begun to cast a shadow over global supply chains.
Although the conflict is centered around the Arabian Gulf region, shipping companies fear that the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen may resume attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, located hundreds of miles to the west. The Houthis had begun targeting ships in the Red Sea following the outbreak of the Gaza Strip war in 2023, though the pace of these attacks declined last year.
Maersk had recently resumed routing its ships through the Red Sea and its southern entrance at the Bab al-Mandab Strait, an area where shipping had been particularly vulnerable to Houthi attacks. However, the company said on Sunday that it has temporarily suspended these operations due to the “deteriorating security situation in the Middle East.”
