A fighter of the Houthi group stands on the Galaxy Leader Vessel as he guards it, on the Red Sea coast off Hodeidah, on 12 May 2024, in the Red Sea, Yemen. [Getty]
Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), Arsenio Dominquez, plans to visit Egypt next week to discuss a wide range of issues, as worries grow about Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and disruptions to the international maritime movement.
So far, the attacks have caused a drop of approximately 70 percent in freight traffic in the Suez Canal, the fastest route between Europe and Asia and Egypt‘s main source of foreign currency, as vessels have to divert to the longer Cape of Good Hope route.
The use of the same longer route is also causing a whopping increase of 70 percent in emissions, according to the IMO.
Attacks by the Iran-backed militia in Yemen, which was in solidarity with Gaza and sought to pressure Israel to accept a ceasefire, are also pushing the expected rise in shipping costs to 0.6 percent, the organisation said.
The attacks and their aforementioned ramifications are among the issues the IMO chief will discuss during his visit to Egypt with the Arab country’s officials.
Dominquez told reporters in London on 15 December that he would also discuss the fate of 25 seafarers who were on board of the car carrier, Galaxy Leader, when the ship was hijacked by the Houthis in November 2023 as it tried to transition to the Red Sea.
The plight of the Galaxy Leader, he said, presents a problem for the IMO.
While in Egypt, Dominquez is also expected to open his organisation’s new office in the northern coastal city of Alexandria.
To be situated inside the Egyptian Authority for Maritime Safety in the Port of Alexandria, the office will work to boost IMO presence in the Middle East and North Africa.
Tough time
The visit of the IMO chief to Egypt comes as the Arab country struggles to cope with the effects Houthi attacks on container ships in the Red Sea are having on Suez Canal revenues and the Egyptian economy, in general.
The Iran-backed militia, which controls the western Yemeni port of Hodeidah, has been targeting container vessels off the Yemeni coast for almost a year now.
It says it especially attacks US and Israeli ships in solidarity with the Palestinians, now caught in the middle of deadly Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Israeli attacks on the coastal Palestinian territory have so far left over 50,000 people, mostly women and children, dead, and tens of thousands of others injured. They are also leaving most of Gaza in ruin.
Nevertheless, the Houthis’ show of solidarity with the people of Gaza is coming at Egypt’s cost and the cost of international trade and the maritime movement in the Red Sea.
They are depriving Egypt of much-needed revenues from the Suez Canal, disrupting international trade and causing ships to take the longer Cape of Good Hope route.
In late December last year, Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said the canal had lost approximately $7 billion in 2024, almost 60 percent of its overall annual revenues.
Apart from other effects from the war in Gaza, the loss of revenues from the Suez Canal because of Houthi attacks is pushing Egypt to the verge of economic devastation, which might explain why the populous country has sought support from the International Monetary Fund and other international crediting institutions.
Red Sea unrest also wrecks Egypt’s future economic planning, with the Suez Canal region falling at the heart of the populous country’s economic aspirations.
The Egyptian government has invested billions of dollars in the upgrade of the canal since 2014, amid hopes for raising revenues from the vital waterway, the main conduit of around 12 percent of global trade, including 30 percent of the international container trade.
Egypt also hopes to turn the Suez Canal region into an international logistical, industrial hub that attracts tens of billions of dollars in investments in the coming years.
Difficult choices
Houthi attacks are becoming a cause of concern, mainly for Western powers.
In December 2023, the US formed an alliance of ten nations to tackle the counter-attacks by the Houthis.
The formation of the alliance came after the US set up the Combined Task Force 153 in April 2022 to improve maritime security in the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden.
Despite its losses from the same attacks, Egypt has not participated in the US-led ten-nation alliance, at least publicly, even as it is a member of the Combined Task Force.
Nonetheless, a retired Egyptian army general has called for the formation of a task force to guard maritime traffic in the Red Sea against Houthi attacks.
Mohab Mamish, the former commander of the Egyptian navy and a former head of the Suez Canal Authority, the government agency that runs the Suez Canal, said in December 2023 that the new force could be deployed off the coast of one of the Red Sea neighbouring states to escort ships on the road to and from the Suez Canal.
In striving to protect its own economic interests against Houthi attacks, Egypt walks a fine line.
True, the Arab country is losing much-needed revenues from the Suez Canal because of these attacks, but Egyptian military action against the Houthis will be interpreted at home and in the wider region as coming in defence of Israel, the main target of the Houthi attacks, analysts in Cairo said.
“Egypt can foot an unwanted heavy political and military bill, if it gets involved in attacks against the Houthis,” Amani al-Taweel, a researcher at Egyptian think tank, al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told The New Arab.
Perhaps this is why Egypt will not likely take action against Houthi attacks in the future, but rather focus on diplomacy, as it did in the past months.
In doing this, Cairo apparently acts under the belief that Houthi attacks are a result of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
“If Houthis attacks in the Red Sea are causing harm to Israel, this means that Tel Aviv has to rethink its own policies in the Palestinian territories and the region,” al-Taweel said.
“A suspension of Israeli attacks on Gaza, will ultimately bring an end to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea,” she added.
