Saudi Red Sea initiative is protective

Saudi Arabia’s efforts to reach an agreement among six countries bordering the strategic Red Sea aims to “limit” the foreign regional intervention in the region, and provide security to the area, which is important to the international trade and oil shipments, Arab analysts said.

The Saudi initiative comes to create an “umbrella” under which the six countries could collaborate their efforts to protect the region, they added.

Reasons behind the Saudi initiative are many, said Abdul Aziz Al Saqr, Chairman of the Jeddah-based Gulf Research Centre.

“But among the most important ones are the security reasons. The Red Sea region became an area where there is prominent regional influence,” Saqr told Gulf News, explaining that Turkey has a presence in Sudan, while Iran has presence in both Yemen and Djibouti.

Both Ankara and Tehran, Saqr said, are “rushing to have an influence in the Red Sea region comes because of the importance of the region: 4 million barrel of oil are passing through the sea every day and 25,000 ship every year, apart from the shipping of goods worth 2 trillion year through the strategic area, as well as huge Saudi investments in the region.”

Before the Saudi initiative, there “was no umbrella” for the countries bordering the sea, which has two strategic shipping passages for international trade; Suez Canal in the north and the Bab al Mandeb in the south, explained Saqr.

Former Jordanian Prime Minister, Taher Al Masri, agreed in a statement to Gulf News that the Red Sea region has an extremely importance strategically. He said the Saudi initiative is an important one, and would lead to “pre-emptive cooperation (among the concerned countries) in the face of any future threats,” he said.

The six countries included in the initiative include, apart from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan.

“All of them are Arab countries, and they don’t have one umbrella to work under… I believe such an arrangement could make the Red Sea region similar to the Arabian Gulf region, protected from foreign intervention,” Masri said. The initiative would also protect Saudi Arabia from these foreign intervention and influences.

“It is very important to establish coordination among the Arab countries, said Mohamed Juma’ from Cairo-based Al Ahram Strategic Studies Center.

“The situation in the Arab region necessitates such a coordination,” he told Gulf News.

“I believe the Arab Gulf conflict with Iran, and the interference of regional parties… necessitates such a bloc,” he said.

“To have the minimum level of coordination among the Arab countries in the region, I believe, would lead to a better negotiation position with the international parties that are interested in the region”, he said in reference to different countries, including China which seeks to revive the historical Silk Road.