Radio Erena: 26 March 2015
President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea sends a letter to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the wake of the crises in Yemen, which is feared to bring about instability in the Red Sea region.
In a letter that was delivered to the Saudi Prince – Murqin Abdelaziz by Eritrea’s Ambassador to the country – Mohammed Umar Mahmood on the 22nd of March, Eritrea expressed its concern and stand on the situation in Yemen.
This is not his first time. President Isaias had previously sent letters to the Saudi and Egyptian leaders expressing his concern on the political and military developments in Yemen, reported Al Monitor newspaper of Egypt.
Saudi Arabia, along with some Gulf States, has been trying to facilitate peace talks between the Yemeni government and the Huthi opposition group in Riyadh.
Meanwhile, the former Yemeni minister of foreign affairs – Riyadh Yasin urges Egypt to find a sustainable solution for the instability in the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.
The minister says he fears that the Huthi opposition group, which has taken away the town of Tayiz located next to Bab-el-Mandeb from the government forces and that they seem to be heading toward the strait and they might block it.
Egypt, on its part, warns it would intervene militarily, if the Huthis block the strait.
Many political analysts in the area speculate that Egypt might lose billions in revenue that it gets from taxing commercial cargo ships which pass through the Suez Canal, if the Bab-el-Mandeb is shutdown by the Huthis.
The United States and Great Britain – the two western countries which had established bases in the area and had interest in controlling the strategic part of the strait, have pulled their forces from the area in the wake of fierce aggression by the Huthis.
Bab-el-Mandeb is a strait located between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
Many western countries are now eyeing on Djibouti as a strategic partner to work on stabilizing the situation in the area in order to insure the security of their commercial cargo ships that use the canal.
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