Securing Bab al Mandab is vital for Suez Canal security

MENA Board Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Alaa Haider stressed on Sunday that Egypt's dispatch of a naval force to secure Bab al Mandeb Strait against Houthi control serves Egypt's national security as much as it serves the Arab and Gulf security.
Securing Bab al Mandab, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, means securing the Canal Suez waterway and vice versa, especially as 30 percent of world petroleum has to pass through Bab al Mandab first before crossing through the Canal Suez, Haider said at a lecture before the Police Academy's Leaders Institute.
If left under the control of terrorist groups, navigation through the 30km-wide Bab al Mandab will be at high risk, he added.
Around 25,000 huge oil tankers pass through Bab al Mandab, Haider noted.
He talked about terrorist groups seizing rockets from warehouses of the Yemeni army and planning to attack oil tankers passing through the strait, he added.
The strait will be of more significance after expanding the current Suez Canal waterway as the volume of world trade passing through it is expected to rise from 40 to 75 percent, he added.
He lauded the recent visit of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to Ethiopia, saying it will make Ethiopians more open to Egypt as regards the Nile water file.
He added that the industrial zone that will be set up in Ethiopia will serve Egypt and Egyptian businessmen.
He referred to businessmen Ahmed Suwaidi's speech at the Egypt Economic Development Conference, held lately in Sharm el Sheikh, in which he made clear that the profits of his factories in Ethiopia range between 35 to 40 percent.
Suwaidi owns cables and wire factories.
Source: MENA