MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/. Attacks on ships in the Middle East may cause problems similar to the piracy off the coast of Somalia, according to Sergey Ivanov, a special representative of the Russian president for environmental protection, ecology and transportation.
He said that the recent attempts by self-proclaimed Yemeni rebels to seize ships are alarming.
"But as a matter of fact, it’s not at all clear who they are," he said at the Primakov Readings international forum. "The latest ship that was hijacked, was released. One of the crew members was a Russian national. And if this continues, it will remind me of the Somali crisis: sea piracy, but in a different region," Ivanov said.
"It must be fought because it affects the economic situation, the logistics of all global trade," he went on to say.
The Associated Press earlier reported, citing maritime security company Ambrey, that the Central Park ship came under attack in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen. The report didn’t say who perpetrated the attack.
Ivanov commented on the chances of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict affecting supply chains in the region. "So far, I do not feel the direct impact of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on transportation logistics, but I do not rule out that it may happen."
The official also said that the Mediterranean Sea is home to "a huge number of pipelines, gas pipelines."
"I don't want to draw parallels with the Baltic Sea. What happened there [to the Nord Stream pipelines] is pure state terrorism. And it is nonsense to wait for any results of the investigation, except for the media noise about Ukraine’s alleged involvement. But I do hope that nothing like this will happen in the Middle East region," he said.