COPENHAGEN: AP Moller-Maersk A/S, the world’s second-largest container line, said it’s preparing to resume shipping through the Red Sea, thanks to a new multi-national maritime task force to protect vessels from attacks by Houthi rebels from Yemen, Bloomberg reported.

“We are currently working on plans for the first vessels to make the transit and for this to happen as soon as operationally possible,” the company said Sunday in an advisory. “While doing so, ensuring the safety of our employees is of the utmost importance and our number one priority in handling the challenging situation in the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden area.”

The announcement came just two days after the Copenhagen-based company said it envisions chaos in the Red Sea — caused by drone attacks from Houthis — to continue for months. In its Sunday statement, Maersk said that the creation of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a maritime task force set up by the US and allies, is “most welcome news for the entire industry.” The US and its allies say they are considering possible military action against the Houthis, which are backed by Iran.

Amid worries that the Zionist military’s operation in Gaza may spiral into a regional conflict, the US accused Iran this weekend of being behind an attack on a tanker in the Indian Ocean.

Maersk stressed on Sunday that, while resuming transit in the Red Sea, “the overall risk is not eliminated in the area.” The company said it would “not hesitate” to re-evaluate the safety situation for its vessels and employees. Houthi attacks on merchant ships have caused widespread avoidance of the southern Red Sea by the merchant fleet moving everything from manufactured goods and grains to oil and gas.

Last week, two more major shipping firms, Mediterranean Shipping Company and CMA CGM, said they were suspending passage through the Bab al-Mandeb strait after the Yemeni rebel attacks in the area. The announcement by Italian-Swiss giant MSC and France’s CMA CGM follows a similar decision Friday by two of the world’s largest shipping companies, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd.

The Houthis said they were targeting vessels near the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait to pressure the Zionist entity over its devastating assault on Gaza Strip. Thousands of ships every year transit through the strait, which runs between Yemen, on the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, and the African continent.

Ships belonging to the Zionist entity or heading to its ports “will remain vulnerable to targeting until the aggression stops, the siege on Gaza is lifted, and humanitarian aid continues to flow” to Gaza, Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdul Salam said on X.

MSC, one of the world’s largest freight shipping lines, said one of its container vessels had been targeted in the Red Sea and it was halting traffic through the strait until it was safe. No one on the MSC Palatium III was wounded but the ship suffered fire damage, the company said. CMA CGM said it had ordered all its vessels to leave the area and stay there until further notice.

The International Chamber of Shipping condemned the Houthi attacks which “threaten the lives of innocent seafarers and the safety of merchant shipping”. Diverting Asia-bound shipping from the Red Sea to South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope would increase costs and delays, the body noted. Consultancy S&P Global estimated that the detour would increase the distance between Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Singapore by 40 percent. – Agencies