Egypt will be asking the owners of the Ever Given cargo ship to pay Cairo compensation, and holds the ship's captain responsible for last Tuesday's accident which shut down the Suez Canal, an aide to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has told Sputnik.
The advisor, who asked not to be named, said it will take up to four days to completely clear up the bottleneck which has formed in the canal.
The official also confirmed that navigation has been resumed, that the canal was completely safe, and that reconstruction of any kind was not deemed necessary following the 23 March incident.
The advisor also ruled out the possibility of sabotage.
Finally, the official indicated that the Ever Given was undergoing technical inspection, after which it would be sent on its way to its destination in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Late last week, The Japan Times reported that the Ever Given was traveling at a rate of 13.5 knots before running aground, despite the canal's speed limit of between 7.6 and 8.6 knots.
The massive, skyscraper-sized container ship's bow jabbed into the canal's right bank last Tuesday, with its stern pointing toward the left bank at an angle sufficient to block all traffic by all large ships. Strong winds are believed to have played a role in the accident.
The incident caused a massive pile-up of shipping vessels to the canal's north and south, with financial beancounters estimating that the ship was delaying some $400 million in shipping for every hour that it remained jammed up in the canal, and causing Egypt some $14 million in lost revenues daily from transit fees.
The 23 March accident prompted some shipping companies to reroute vessels around the Cape of Good Hope. A handful of Asian retailers reportedly decided to turn to overland transport via Russia and Central Asia.