Tehran has denied US accusations that it was involved in planning attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on merchant ships in the Red Sea.
“The Houthis have their own tools and act according to their own decisions and capacities,” said Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Khani.
The White House said earlier that Tehran was “deeply involved” in the planning of operations and intelligence crucial to the Houthis targeting ships in the Red Sea.
Yemen’s Houthi movement carried out multiple attacks on merchant ships sailing through the Red Sea in November in response to Israel’s attack on Gaza, causing some companies to divert their tankers.
Rebels in Yemen have stepped up attacks on ships in the Suez Canal in recent days.
Major shipping companies such as MSC, Maersk, Hapag-Loid and CMA CGM have already suspended container shipments through the area due to the increase in attacks.
Meanwhile, Ikea has warned of delays and shortages of some products as the furniture maker looks for an alternative route for its cargo ships.
An Ikea Group spokesperson said: “What we can share at this time is that the Suez Canal situation will result in delays and may cause availability constraints for certain Ikea products.”
They added that the safety of staff working in its supply chain was its priority, and it was evaluating other options to secure the availability of products. Ikea does not have its own container vessels but uses external operators.
At least 80 billion dollars worth of cargo has already been diverted from the waterway that provides access to Egypt’s Suez Canal, the quickest passage between Europe and Asia, due to a wave of missile attacks.
The Swedish company Electrolux, the world’s largest company for the production of household appliances, has established a working group to find alternative routes and identify priority deliveries.
Shipping giants Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, and CMA CGM are among those to have confirmed this week that they will begin diverting ships already in transit around the longer Cape of Good Hope route along southern Africa as the attacks continue.
Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said the company has assessed that there is currently an unacceptable risk to its employees because there is no way to know which ships will be targeted, Biznis Info writes.
E.Dz.
