Iran Press/ Middle East: Red Sea has a vital role in maritime commerce and economy of its coastal countries.
Importance of Red Sea
One reason for importance of the Red Sea is that the sea is connected to the Mediterranean Sea via Suez channel and Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean via the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Moreover, 15 percent of global trade moves through the Red Sea.
Regarding this, first conference of foreign ministers of Arabian and African coastal countries of the Red Sea was held in Riyadh on December 12. Representatives from Egypt, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan gathered in Riyadh on Wednesday to discuss the initiative.
Saudi's main goals
Handling rivalry with regional countries, namely Turkey is one of the main drivers of Saudi intentions to settle legal framework of coastal countries of the Red Sea.
Sudan, as one of the participating countries, had agreed to lease the Suakin Island to Turkey for development.
In fact, Saudis try to prevent regional countries tendencies to rival countries. Due to economic dependence of majority of coastal counties, Saudis try to create an entity to prevent and thwart influence of rival powers like Turkey.
Doha also in last two decades and in past 18 months in particular has made tremendous investments in the region and now, Saudis try to hinder Qataris attempts.
The next point in Saudis struggle for the entity is their approach to normalize relations with Israel.
Al-Jadid, the Qatari newspaper recently reported that "due the access of Israel to coasts of the Red Sea, creating of such a council can be related to secret moves of the Saudis to normalize their relations with Israel".
In other word, despite Israelis absence in the meeting, they welcome this movement.
Saudi Arabia and establishment of the Red Sea Legal Framework
In addition to seven participating countries, Egypt, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Eritrea is also in the coasts of the Red Sea and Israel has access to this water body. Eritrea did not participate in the meeting and by itself, this rejects existence of any consensus among coastal countries.
Also, there is some real differences between Saudis and Sudanese and strengthening of relations among Sudan, Turkey and Qatar is clear sign of it and by setting up of such entities, Saudis are not able to stop mounting influence of Turkey and Qatar in the region.
On the other hand, US, China, Japan, France, Turkey and Israel have military bases in the region and their interests should also take into account.
Finally, although Saudis claim that their aim is to ensure the security of the Red Sea, they and their allies in last 45 months undermined security of region by attacking Yemen. 212/204
Read more:
US Senate rebukes Saudi Arabia over Yemen war
Trump under pressure to disclose financial ties with Saudi Arabia
Saudi officials are rejected in the international arena: Iranian MP
