[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Arab states of the Gulf and Red Sea said on Monday that they are planning a joint anti-piracy force, insisting defense of the crucial Red Sea waterway was the "primary responsibility" of littoral states.
| Indeed. How lovely they finally remembered. |
Saying it was necessary to prevent the spread of piracy to the Red Sea or the Gulf, 11 regional states agreed on an all-Arab Navy Task Force, to be initially led by Saudi, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
| This should be amusing, especially for our readers with boating experience. |
The delegates to the conference in the Saudi capital stressed the "importance of the exclusion of the Red Sea from any international arrangements, especially the fight against sea piracy."
Royal Saudi Navy commander Lieutenant General Prince Fahd bin Abdullah told journalists: "This subject is now under negotiation and we are hoping to reach an agreement to form this force."
| "Who can we get to front the funding for this?" |
Joining the talks were representatives from Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the UAE and Yemen.
Fahd said part of the effort would be to design ways of cooperating with the flotillas from some 20 foreign countries now patrolling sea lanes in the Gulf of Aden and off the Horn of Africa to stop pirate attacks. "One of the objectives of the meeting is to discuss joint Arab coordination with multinational forces operating in the region to combat piracy and to agree on the mechanisms of the Arab contribution" to these efforts, he said. |