The United States on Tuesday launched a multinational operation to protect commerce in the Red Sea as attacks by Iran-backed Yemeni militants forced major shipping companies to reroute, stoking fears of sustained disruptions to global trade.
The Pentagon has convinced more than a half dozen allies to join a strengthened naval task force in the Red Sea amid mounting attacks by Iran-backed rebels on commercial shipping that have driven oil prices higher. More than 9mn barrels a day of oil shipments, or almost a tenth of global demand, pass through the Red Sea, making it one of the world’s busiest energy chokepoints.
This week, the attacks began to take a toll on global trade, disrupting a key trade route that links Europe and North America with Asia via the Suez Canal. Oil major BP BP.L paused all Red Sea transits, and a slew of top shipping firms including Maersk MAERSKb.CO started diverting shipments normally made through Suez around the Cape of Good Hope on Africa’s southern tip.
The new route around Africa adds days to journey times and raises costs. The list of companies avoiding the Red Sea continued to grow on Tuesday. The crisis, which has grown out of the war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, is the latest in the Middle East to pit the United States and its allies against Iran and its regional Arab proxy militias.