AFR: Red Sea nations pledge to fight piracy, respect Somalia
21 Nov 2008 2:44 AMBy Samer al-Atrush
CAIRO, Nov 20 AFP - Arab Red Sea states meeting in Cairo have blamed the piracy off Somalia's coast on turmoil in that country and pledged cooperationto end the threat.
The meeting, co-hosted by Yemen and Egypt, was attended by delegates from Somalia's transitional government, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Djibouti and Jordan.
It came days after pirates hijacked a fully loaded Saudi oil tanker with a $US100 million ($A157 million) cargo and a crew of 25, demandingUS25 million ($A39.25 million) in ransom.
With three more ships captured since the Sirius Star was taken on Saturday,foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said before the meeting ended on Thursday that Egypt would consider all possibilities in dealing with the crisis.
"The Egyptian national security establishment works intensively on all options, examines what measures could be taken in this regard and decides whether a diplomatic and political solution will be preferred."
"All options are open," Egypt's official MENA news agency quoted him as saying.
In a statement issued after the meeting, the delegates pledged to respect Somalia's sovereignty when battling piracy, but was short on specifics of how the countries intended to end it.
The delegates "expressed the anxiety of Arab states overlooking the Red Seatoward the growth of the phenomenon of piracy", the statement said.
"Piracy off the Somali coast is one of the consequences of the deterioration of the political, security and humanitarian situation in Somalia," it said.
The states will appoint military commissions to make recommendations on howto counter it, and "observe, pursue and confront any attempt by the pirates to enter the Red Sea, whether during acts of piracy or when fleeing confrontations."
Arab Red Sea states will support international counter-piracy operations, "so long as they conform to international law ... and respect the sovereignty of countries on their lands and in their waters," the statement said.
Last week, Yemen complained that the heavy deployment of multinational naval forces in the Gulf of Aden to combat piracy could pose a threat to Arab security.
"The intensive multinational military presence in the southern outlet of the Red Sea is worrying," Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi said.
Naval forces from the United States, Russia, Europe and elsewhere are patrolling the dangerous Gulf of Aden in an attempt to curb piracy attacks.
But the United States, which also has warships off Somalia, said a militaryapproach was not the answer.
"You could have all the navies in the world having all their ships out there, you know, it's not going to ever solve this problem," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said on Wednesday.
"It requires a holistic approach from the international community at sea, ashore, with governance, with economic development," he told reporters.
Egypt is particularly concerned about the piracy because of its reliance onon revenue from traffic using the Suez Canal between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
Suez is Egypt's third-largest source of revenue after tourism and remittances from expatriate workers, and currently about 7.5 per cent of global trade passes through the canal.
"The phenomenon is threatening navigation in the Red Sea, causing some vessels to take other routes," Zaki said.
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