Egypt and Saudi Arabia have concluded a joint naval training in the Red Sea, one aiming at increasing cooperation between the two Arab countries’ navies and delivering a message about their preparedness for any emergency in the region. The “Morgan 16” naval training started on January 22 at a newly-opened Egyptian naval base near Egypt’s southern Red Sea coast.

The area where the training took place is in close proximity to the southern entrance of the Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the coast of Yemen, an Arab state where a Saudi-led coalition has been fighting an insurgency by the Iran-backed Houthi militia for almost five years now.

Why Were The Drills Done Now?

The training – only one aspect of military cooperation between Egypt and Saudi Arabia – came at a sensitive time in the Middle East and Red Sea region. The January 3 killing of the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, brought retaliation fears to areas controlled by militias affiliated with Iran.

In terms of Yemen, the Houthi militia has overrun most of the country – including the capital Sana’a in 2014 – and kicked its legitimate government out. The Houthis’ control of Yemen’s coastal cities is especially increasing fears about freedom of international maritime movement in the southern entrance of the Red Sea, particularly regarding oil exports from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

The militia attacked oil tankers off Yemen’s Red Sea coast several times in the past years, highlighting the dangers they pose to the maritime movement in the area. Egypt is especially worried about the security of the southern entrance of the Red Sea, which is strongly connected with the prospects and business done on the economically vital the Suez Canal.

The administration of incumbent Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has invested billions of dollars in digging a parallel channel to the canal to allow two-way traffic in it for the first time. Sisi’s administration also wants to turn the canal region into an international investment magnet and a major industrial and logistical support center. The training drills are clearly about flexing muscles and demonstrating a commitment to the security of the region.

Military Buildup In The Wider Region

The training, which ended on January 30, also came at a time of major military buildup in the Middle East region, including in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Gulf region. This buildup has rising tensions in the region in the background. Regional states, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, are also taking their own measures to shield themselves against potential threats.

On January 6, Saudi Arabia formed a new Red Sea coalition. The new military bloc, made up of eight countries, will be ready to act against piracy, smuggling, and other threats in the Red Sea with a view to protecting the international maritime movement in it.

Egypt is also making a large deployment of important naval and military equipment in the region as part of its Southern naval fleet. Egyptian military and naval presence in this area also aims to function as a shield against Turkish ambitions in the Red Sea, according to analysts.

Turkey was hoping to gain presence in the Red Sea by signing an agreement in December 2017 with ex-Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir for the administrative control of the Sudanese Red Sea island of Suakin. The island is located a few kilometers away from Egypt’s Red Sea coast and Turkish presence in the island will tighten the noose around Egypt, especially as part of a Turkish plan to besiege the Arab country for ideological, economic, and strategic reasons. Turkey has a military presence in Libya and in the Horn of Africa and its control of the Sudanese island would bring it dangerously close to the Egyptian border as well.

The Scope Of The Naval Training Exercises

A large number of Egyptian and Saudi naval units participated in the training. They included a number of corvettes, speedboats, and supply ships. The troops participating also trained in electronic warfare and electronic maneuvering. They carried out search and rescue operations for distressed ships and planes. They feigned a real naval battle and trained in live fire shooting, especially aiming at surface targets.

The Egyptian and Saudi navy troops also trained in the supply of naval units in the sea as well as in countering non-traditional attacks. They raided a remote island where enemy forces are heavily fortified to make it difficult for invaders or attackers to reach them. The clear message behind all these activities was that the two navies are ready to defend the Egyptian and Saudi coasts and operate in tandem with each other.

L'articolo Egypt, Saudi Arabia Flexing Military Muscles In The Red Sea proviene da InsideOver.

In an unprecedented turn of events, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan visited both Tehran and Riyadh to facilitate talks between the two regional arch-rivals.

After years of hostility and competition for influence in the region, both Tehran and Riyadh have hinted at indirect talks to reduce tensions. The thaw in icy-cold relations came after top officials from Pakistan and Iraq said the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had asked the leaders of the two countries to speak to Iran on the possibilities of de-escalation.

Khan was in Tehran on the weekend to meet the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei. Afterwards, on Tuesday, he met with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) to deliver a message from Iran.

Rouhani, in a joint press conference with Khan, said that Iran is ready to sit on the negotiating table but added that “the key to regional issues is ending the war in Yemen, immediate cease-fire and helping the Yemenis, which can be a good start.” He went on to add that, “any kind of goodwill and good speech will be responded with good, suitable speech.”

Speaking at the conference, Khan also said that Islamabad will take every effort to ensure peace in the region and deescalate the situation. Pakistan is wary of a potential conflict between Riyadh and Tehran and has long sought to solve the differences between the two rivals to avoid another war at its doorstep.

Khan also invited both sides to Islamabad, which he said can be used as a neutral venue to iron out differences.

Iran and Pakistan share a 560-mile border and have had amicable relations in the past, but Saudi Arabia has been Islamabad’s key ally in the region. By mediating between the two neighbors, Pakistan seeks to maintain its neutrality in the ongoing regional tussle.

“Iran has always been a friendly neighbour to Pakistan and supported us in hard times,” Khan said in Tehran.

On the other hand, the statements following his meeting with the MBS avoided any mention of Iran. The comments made on the regional issues were kept purposefully vague and emphasised upon the “strong ties between the two brotherly countries,” while adding that the two sides “also discussed the latest developments in the region.”

Iran and Saudi Arabia — apart from the proxy wars in countries from Lebanon to Yemen — have allegedly attacked each other’s oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the Red and Arabian Sea. The insecurity along the shipping routes poses massive risks to global crude supply chain, as more than 21 million barrels per day of oil travels through the narrow chokepoint of Hormuz.

On Friday, an oil tanker owned by the National Iranian Oil Company was hit by two missiles in the Red Sea. Iranian Foreign Minister said the attack was sophisticated, state-sponsored and was carried out by “one or more governments.”

On the other hand, on Sept 14, a small army of drones attacked the state-owned Aramco oil processing facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais located along the eastern border of the Saudi peninsula cutting the global oil supply by almost five per cent. Although, the attacks were claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the US and Saudi Arabia both blamed Iran for the attacks citing intelligence reports.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting proxy wars in the Middle East. However, Yemen, where Iranian-backed militia is head-to-head with the Saudi-led coalition since 2015, has become a battleground for both nations to one-up each other.

However, Khan, following the meetings, acknowledged that both sides have shown their willingness to settle mutual disputes through diplomacy and negotiations.

But for Tehran and Riyadh to peacefully co-exist in the region, they will have to make compromises.

L'articolo Tehran and Riyadh host Imran Khan to discuss deescalation proviene da InsideOver.

Cairo-Egypt is expecting major international interest in oil and gas exploration along its Red Sea coast, shortly after the country invited international companies to apply for concessions in the area.

The Ministry of Petroleum said on March 10 that it would accept bids by international oil and gas companies for exploration in ten spots along the Red Sea coast.

The announcement came hard on the heels of the completion and processing of seismic data about the Red Sea coast.

American company Schlumberger and the British company Tgs have invested $720 million on seismic studies along Egypt’s Red Sea coast. The two companies started operating in an area covering of 10,000 kilometers in July 2017. The results of the study were released in April 2018 and showed that potential investments by international oil and gas companies would be more than worthwhile.

In November last year, the Ministry of Petroleum described the natural gas prospects in the Red Sea as “promising”. Estimates put reserves along Egypt’s Red Sea coast at 6 billion barrels of crude oil and 23 billion barrels of oil equivalent of natural gas.

Oil and gas experts expect exploration in the Red Sea to open the door for an oil and natural gas bonanza for in Egypt. This optimistic forecast is compounded with positive developments in the Egyptian oil and gas sector following the discovery of what is to date the largest ever natural gas finding along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.

In August 2015, Italian state-owned company Eni discovered a huge gas field off the coast of the Suez Canal city of Port Said. With close to 30 trillion cubic feet of reserves. Zohr field as it is called, was described by the Italian company as a “game changer” for international gas markets.

In addition to the effect on gas markets, the discovery turned out to be a game changer for the Egyptian economy as well. Egypt, which turned into a net importer of natural gas following the 2011 uprising against longstanding president Hosni Mubarak, had been an exporter before the uprising, spending hundreds of millions of dollars importing gas from other countries each year.

With production from Zohr having reached 2 billion cubic feet every day now, the expectations are that production will reach 2.7 billion cubic feet per day before the end of this year, with Egypt expecting to raise its daily production of gas to 8 billion cubic feet a day in 2019/2020, from the current rate of 6 billion cubic feet.

This populous Arab state consumes around 6 billion cubic feet of gas every day, which means that it will have enough gas to send to international markets in the coming months.

“The oil and gas sector has very promising prospects,” said Mohamed Saad Eddine, the head of the Lpg Bottling Plants Investors’ Association. “These prospects will be driven by the increase in production and also by expected new discoveries.” These will bring Egypt closer to implementing its plan of becoming a regional energy hub. Cairo has taken several measures to fulfill its goal by reaching several import, processing and export deals, including with Israel and Cyprus.

With its sprawling liquefaction and refining facilities and the necessary infrastructure, experts agree Egypt is more than prepared to be an energy hub. “Our country can easily become an outlet for the processing and then export of output from natural gas producing countries in the eastern Mediterranean,” said Medhat Youssef, the former deputy head of the Petroleum Authority, the executive body for the Ministry of Petroleum. “International companies are spending billions of dollars on new discoveries in our country.”

Youssef and like-minded experts expect international oil and gas companies to have similar enthusiasm for exploration along Egypt’s Red Sea coast. It is believed that this coast has the potential to become Egypt’s next oil and gas production hub.

L'articolo Egypt Optimistic About Red Sea Exploration Prospects proviene da InsideOver.