Egypt is joining the rest of the world in taking steps to fight piracy off the Somali coasts, Dina Ezzat reports Egypt is seriously disturbed by the expanding influence that Somali and Eritrian pirates are exercising off the shores of Somalia. The increasingly threatening incidents of piracy at this spot of the Red Sea could undermine the revenues that Egyptian coffers gain off the Suez Canal which make up the largest foreign currency income for a state with many economic woes. Given that ships exiting the Suez Canal must pass through this pirate-infested spot and face augmenting risks of hijacks -- at least 35 ships have been hijacked and over $30 million paid in ransom to pirates this year -- insurance companies have been increasingly advising shipping companies to consider alternative routes to the Suez Canal. Moreover, says Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affairs Mona Omar, "Egypt cannot turn a blind eye to any security threats that target the Red Sea which is a direct national security interest priority." As such, Egypt has to worry about the impact of piracy off Somali shores and the unchecked dealing in arms and movement of potential terrorists who might not necessarily target Egypt but whose attacks on any neighbouring country overlooking the Red Sea could have a negative, even if indirect, economic impact on the country. Omar told Al-Ahram Weekly that a special committee had been set up within the Foreign Ministry to follow up on the developments. "We are following every little detail and we are carefully examining all the moves that each country in and out of the region is taking to confront this problem and we are going to make sure that we coordinate with all efforts that we deem useful in ending this problem," Omar said. She, however, hastened to add that Egypt will insist that the interests of Somalia as an Arab and Muslim country be preserved. "We will not agree to just any action to end the piracy problem without also worrying about the interests of Somalia and its rights to retain stability and preserve its sovereignty," she said. Informed officials told the Weekly that the committee is to be soon expanded to include representatives of other state bodies including the Intelligence Department, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Interior and the Suez Canal. This year, two Egyptian ships have been subject to piracy off Somali shores and the Foreign Ministry has issued repeated appeals to all vessels to trade carefully near Somali waters. On Tuesday the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution urging states to deploy naval vessels and miltary aircraft to actively join the fight against rampant piracy off the coast of Somalia. The provisions of resolution 1838 "shall not affect the rights or obligations or responsibilities of states under international law". Last June the UN Security Council had permitted states to send their naval vessels into Somalia national waters to combat piracy. This week, several Western naval ships were deployed towards Somali shores following piracy attacks on trade vessels and to secure the delivery of World Food Programme assistance to the Civil War-plagued country. The naval ships also aim to prevent the unloading of a cargo of Soviet tanks and heavy arms to Somalia from a Ukrainian ship that was hijacked by the pirates on 25 September and whose fate is still subject to negotiations. This week, the European Union suggested possible military action to confront piracy off Somali shores. Piracy off Somalia's shores was subject to deliberations earlier this week between President Hosni Mubarak and visiting Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh whose country is sustaining direct repercussions as a result of piracy. Presidential Spokesman Suleiman Awad told reporters Saturday following the Mubarak- Saleh talks that Cairo and Sanaa will be working closely to handle the problem. For Omar, the best possible way to confront piracy was to bring stability and end disorder that has swamped Somalia since the early 1990s with the beginning of an acute and thus far unresolved political crisis. "The problem is in Somalia itself due to the absence of a strong central government," she said. Ministers of the transitional Somali government have themselves admitted this concern. Speaking this week in Nairobi the Foreign Minister of Somalia Ali Jama said his government cannot stand up to the pirates and that the world should be attending to the problem. "We are powerless to fight pirates and we ask the outside world to battle them." Omar argued that there was a need to promote the internal Somali reconciliation process sponsored by the Arab League and the International Governmental Association for Development (IGAD) but cautioned that the road towards reconciliation that Egypt is supporting hard is far from smooth. "And it cannot be achieved without the inclusion of all the political parties in Somalia," she stated. Omar added that meanwhile, "some temporary security measures have to be applied, always with an eye on observing all the rules of international legitimacy." Egypt has repeatedly voiced concern about the preservation of Somali sovereignty -- vague as this term has become. It has been recently suggested to the Ethiopian government that it needs to end its close to two-year military presence in Somalia which was meant to support a fragile transitional government. Ethiopia expressed a wish to replace its presence with one of the African Union peace keeping troops but lack of resources has handicapped the role of the African organisation. The Arab League has also been standing idol concerning the presence of Ethiopian forces in Somalia and the piracy infesting its shores.
