CAIRO, May 4: Egypt has extended for another three months the army deployment in the Gulf and strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait following a request from the country’s defence ministry to defend Egyptian and Arab national security.
The Sisi-led government yesterday extended the deployment of some Egyptian armed forces units in the Gulf area, Red Sea and Strait of Mandeb off Yemen’s coast for another three months or until the end of the Saudi-led operation in Yemen, whichever is earlier, a statement said.
The government said that it accepted the request to defend Egyptian and Arab national security, it added.
Egypt on March 26 decreed that naval and air forces units will be sent to the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandeb Strait for 40 days as part of the Saudi-led military operation against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
The defense ministry asked for the extension of the decree before its expiration.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said in a televised speech early last month that the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait was “an Arab as well as Egyptian national security case”.
He said that Arab national security won’t be protected unless all Arab countries come together.
The strategic narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait, located between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa, connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
Egypt needs uninterrupted access to the Red Sea, located at the southern end of the Suez Canal, through which much of the world’s maritime trade passes.
According to the US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA), 3.8 million barrels of oil and “refined petroleum products” passed through the Bab el-Mandeb each day on its way to Europe, Asia, and the US, making it the world’s fourth- busiest chokepoint.
Egypt is part of the Saudi-led coalition to dislodge Houthi rebels sweeping from Yemen. (PTI)
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