This Tuesday in Cairo, Egypt and Saudi Arabia called to guarantee freedom and security of navigation in the Red Sea, after Riyadh’s promise to respond with “firmness” to the attacks by pro-Iranian Houthis in Yemen whose offensives to consolidate their control of the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait continue.
The Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia – the world’s top crude exporter – and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi “emphasized the importance of guaranteeing freedom and security of maritime navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb, according to Cairo.
This passage linking Europe to Asia via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, heavily used before the war in the Middle East, has become even more strategic for Saudi oil exports since Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz, on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula.
Yemen, neighboring country to Saudi Arabia, was drawn into July into the regional conflict triggered by the American-Israeli offensive against Iran in late February. At the beginning of September, the Houthis launched a major offensive and seized the entire Yemeni coastline along the Red Sea, including the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Its closure would be “catastrophic”, admitted Tuesday the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The world suffers enough from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global hydrocarbons transited before the war, so we cannot afford to add Bab el-Mandeb to this equation,” said a ministry official, Ibrahim al-Hashmi.
For their part, the Houthis reiterate that there is no threat to navigation in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, except for Saudi ships.
A United Nations Security Council meeting in New York is also planned at 15:00 (21:00 Paris time, 19:00 GMT) to discuss the fate of this maritime corridor, AFP learned from diplomatic sources. Saudi Arabia and Yemen were expected to intervene, according to one of these sources.
