MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Red Sea becoming a no-go area for international shipping

BP announced that “in light of the deteriorating security situation for shipping in the Red Sea, BP has decided to temporarily pause all transits.”

Several global maritime agencies and oil and gas giant British Petroleum announced they would temporarily pause transit through the Red Sea until further notice because of the repeated missile and drone incidents against their vessels.

“Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar and yet another attack on a container vessel, 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,” A.P. Moller-Maersk said in a statement.

In a similar statement a spokesperson for BP announced that “in light of the deteriorating security situation for shipping in the Red Sea, BP has decided to temporarily pause all transits.”

We will keep this precautionary pause under ongoing review, subject to circumstances as they evolve in the region,” it added.

Maersk last week said its vessel Maersk Gibraltar was targeted by a missile while travelling from Salalah, Oman, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and that the crew and vessel were reported safe. The following day Maersk denied a claim by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement that the militia had struck a Maersk vessel sailing towards Israel.

“The vessel was not hit,” a Maersk spokesperson said in an email statement. The Houthis had claimed they carried out a military operation against a Maersk container vessel, directly hitting it with a drone.

Maersk said the company was deeply concerned about the highly escalated security situation in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. “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 in the statement.

On Monday, Hapag-Lloyd also announced that it would re-route several ships until safe passage through the Red Sea could be guaranteed, as did Taiwanese container shipping line Evergreen. This follows similar steps taken by other companies last week.

Among those other companies is MSC which has started sailing around Africa, a trip that adds costs and delays.

There has been an increase in attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea in recent weeks by Iran backed, financed and sponsored Yemen Houthi rebels.

The attacks come as a proxy response to Israel's continued war in Gaza against the Islamist group Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the EU, US and several countries.

The Houthis have said they will target any ships traveling to Israel, and have been launching almost daily attacks, although most are unsuccessful, and are targeting vessels traversing the Red Sea with little or no connection to Israel.