The Danish shipping giant stopped crossing the Red Sea again

According to the report of Fars News Agency, the Danish shipping company Maersk announced on Tuesday that it will suspend the traffic of all its ships through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden until further notice.

This statement comes after one of the ships of this Danish company was targeted in the Red Sea on Sunday. Shipping giant Maersk’s decision extends the 48-hour shutdown it announced after Sunday’s attack.

Maersk said in an updated notice sent to customers on Tuesday “We have decided to suspend all traffic through the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden until further notice,” he said. It is possible that its occupants were members of Yemen’s Ansarullah group and it was attacked. The terrorist organization Centcom has claimed that the helicopters of the US army opened fire on the boats in response to this attack and sank three boats. Maersk company had announced for the first time on December 24 It has suspended container shipments through the Red Sea. Despite this, on the 4th of January, after the announcement of the formation of a maritime coalition by the United States to ensure the security of shipping routes in the Red Sea, this ship once again announced that it will use this route again.

The cessation of Maersk’s use of the Red Sea is a new setback for the US-led initiative in the Red Sea. In fact, the American maritime alliance had faced the doubts of the shipping industry since its inception.

Reuters reported on January 1, quoting sources in the shipping industry that they America’s new naval alliance does not know much. Shipping sources said at the same time that many ships still prefer not to cross the Red Sea or cancel their contracts.

Shipping industry sources say they have been provided with few practical details about the plan, and they do not know whether Washington will intervene directly in the event of an armed conflict.

Another reason for the failure of the US coalition was the failure of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to join this coalition. When the United States of America announced the formation of a naval coalition under its leadership to protect ships in the Red Sea, the absence of the names of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which were the main members of the coalition fighting the Yemenis, surprised some experts.

While Saudi Arabia has an army equipped with American weapons, it started a war against Ansarullah about 9 years ago, and in addition, it depends on the Red Sea ports for 36% of its imports.

Some analysts describe the reason for Saudi Arabia’s reluctance to participate in this coalition as an attempt to avoid tension with Iran and also in line with the country’s plans to exit the costly war in Yemen. /p>

Two sources in the Persian Gulf who are familiar with the matter told Reuters last month that the reason for the absence of Saudi Arabia and the UAE is that they want to avoid escalating tensions with Iran or jeopardizing the peace in Yemen. avoid.

Iyad al-Rifai, from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, said: “The occurrence of another war means moving from one political process to another military process, which will change the geopolitical map of the Middle East for a long time. It will change.”

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in addition, because of their doubts about the long-term commitment of America to these two countries, they have been trying to find new partners for their regional politics for years now. transform.

Saudi Arabia has taken the biggest step in this direction with the agreement reached with Iran through the mediation of China. This agreement was reached in February in Beijing.

The Saudis also want to end their 9-year war in Yemen. According to Reuters, this war has now reached a stalemate that has damaged the prestige of Saudi Arabia due to Yemen’s attacks on Saudi airports and energy bases, which has created insecurity in the country.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia Since April 2014, the poor country of Yemen has been targeted by heavy air, land and sea attacks in order to restore power to “Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi”, the resigned president of Yemen.

These attacks will destroy Yemen’s infrastructure and the spread of poverty, unemployment and the spread of infectious diseases in this poor Arab country have led. Since the beginning of these attacks, tens of thousands of Yemeni civilians have been martyred and wounded.

According to Reuters, peace in Yemen is also important for the UAE, although in 2020 the country will spend most of its forces removed from the war. The UAE still supports Yemeni groups, and Yemeni Ansarullah targeted Abu Dhabi with drone and missile attacks last year. It is a coalition. Reuters news agency wrote in a report on January 7th that while it has been a week since the launch of this coalition, many American allies do not want to be publicly associated with it.

Two American allies in Europe That is, Italy and Spain, which had initially announced that they would participate in this plan, then tried to withdraw from their initial action by issuing separate statements.

Pentagon initially claimed that this The Maritime Task Force is a coalition of 20 countries to ensure the free passage of $20 billion worth of goods through one of the most important shipping lanes in the Red Sea near Yemeni waters. These 20 countries have not stepped forward to confirm their participation in the aforementioned coalition, and they have not allowed America to do so either. Participation in this coalition includes a wide range from sending warships to sending only one agent as a representative. has done. By issuing a joint statement with the United States, while condemning Yemeni attacks in the Red Sea, Britain has declared its support for this coalition and has joined it. However, although countries such as Greece and England have publicly supported the American operation, several countries whose names were included in the joint statement quickly announced that they do not participate directly in this coalition.

The Italian Ministry of Defense announced that it will send a ship to the Red Sea following the request of Italian ship owners, but it is not part of the US coalition. France also announced that it supports efforts to free maritime traffic in the Red Sea, but its ships are under French command. He is against using the EU task force to fight piracy. But on Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he would like to consider creating a separate task force to deal with maritime security in the Red Sea.

Yemen’s Ansarullah, which currently controls much of since the beginning of Israel’s attacks in Gaza, it has announced that it will attack ships owned by or under the flag of Israel in the Red Sea. Despite this, Ansarullah stated that the Red Sea is safe for other ships.

The attacks of the Yemeni army in the Red Sea began on November 19, and the Ansarallah movement announced that until the end of the Israeli attacks in Gaza will continue. The American, British and French naval forces have each claimed to have shot down drones or missiles fired from Yemen.

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