The Danish shipping company Maersk said on Friday that it will continue to divert its ships around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope route.

She explained that due to the ongoing tensions in the region, the security risks threatening commercial ships passing through the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait remain high.

It confirmed that it would not return until safe passage through the Red Sea region and the Gulf of Aden in the long term was ensured, as the Houthis had said that their attacks on Israeli-owned ships would continue until the end of all stages of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

In a separate context, the US State Department announced that Secretary Marco Rubio phoned Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed bin Mubarak, yesterday, Friday, and they discussed cooperation to stop Houthi attacks in the region, at a time when United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the group’s detention of seven of the organization’s employees. International on Thursday, and called for their immediate release.

Rubio and Ben Mubarak’s call came two days after the White House announced that US President Donald Trump had decided to include the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) on the list of “foreign terrorist organizations,” adding that “the Houthi activities threaten the security of American civilians and employees in the Middle East, as well as "It threatens the safety of our closest regional partners and the stability of global maritime trade."

The statement stressed that "the policy of the United States is to cooperate with its regional partners to eliminate the capabilities and operations of the Houthis and to deprive them of resources with the aim of ending their attacks," explaining that "the Houthis have fired more than 300 projectiles at Israel since October 2023." The American decision came two days after Trump returned to the White House, who had signed a similar decision in the last days of his previous term, before former President Joe Biden decided to remove the group from the list of terrorist organizations in mid-February 2021, about a month after it entered the White House. The White House.

In addition, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, strongly condemned the arbitrary detention carried out by the Houthis in Yemen of seven additional United Nations employees in the areas under their control. He said in a press statement: “United Nations staff and its partners should not be targeted, arrested or detained while carrying out their United Nations duties on behalf of the people who benefit from their services.”