SANAA: Countries bordering the Red Sea will meet in Egypt this week for talks on the rampant piracy in the region, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Kurbi said.
Countries bordering the Red Sea have been invited to meet on Nov. 20 in Cairo to discuss the security of the Red Sea, Kurbi said, adding that the meeting was called by both Egypt and Yemen.
On Nov. 10, Kurbi 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, Saba state news agency quoted him as saying.
Kurbi warned that such a heavy foreign presence endangers Arab national security and could lead to an internationalization of the Red Sea that he said was proposed in the past by Israel but faced an Arab rejection.
Kurbi did not identify the countries invited to attend the Cairo talks.
Earlier this month, Egypt called an urgent meeting of Arab countries bordering the Red Sea.
Naval forces from the United States, Russia, Europe and elsewhere regularly patrol the dangerous Gulf of Aden in an attempt to curb the frequent piracy attacks off Somalia.
Last week, the European Union formally launched an anti-piracy security operation off the coast of Somalia. Operation Atalanta is its first ever naval mission.
According to the International Maritime Bureau, 83 ships have been attacked off Somalia since January. Thirty-three were hijacked, with 12 vessels and more than 200 crew still in the hands of pirates.
Piracy is rife and well organized in the area where Somalia s northeastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, preying on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal through which an estimated 30 percent of the world s oil passes.
Cairo has said piracy has not harmed traffic through the canal, a major source of revenue. -AFP
