The Maritime Task Force (MTF) website states: "Since the start of its operations, the MTF has hailed around 28,000 ships and referred around 400 suspicious vessels to the Lebanese authorities for further inspection."
As seen above, the Suez Canal is vital for the transit of Western aircraft carriers and other warships and for oil shipments.
Egypt is also important for the NATO nations of North America and Europe as part of their energy war against Russia aside from the Suez passageway.
The Suez-Mediterranean (SuMed) oil pipeline runs from the Ain Sukhna terminal on the Gulf of Suez (leading to the canal) at the northern end of the Red Sea to Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean. The 200-mile pipeline provides an alternative to the Suez Canal for transporting Persian Gulf oil to the Mediterranean Sea, and there are currently plans to extend it across the Red Sea from Ain Sukhna to the terminal of Saudi Arabia's 745-mile East-West Crude Oil Pipeline (Petroline) in Yanbu in the west of the kingdom.
On January 28 Egyptian troops were deployed to the SuMed pipeline.
In May of 2009 the European Union held a conference entitled Southern Corridor - New Silk Road in the Czech capital of Prague in order "to help reduce Europe's heavy dependence on Russia." [23]
Centering on the Nabucco natural gas and other pipelines to bring Caspian Sea hydrocarbons to Europe in opposition to Russian projects, participating non-EU countries included Egypt and Iraq in addition to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Turkey.
The conference promoted "three gas projects, all bypassing Russia. It [discussed] the 10 billion euro Nabucco project, which by 2013 is to link the Caspian Sea region, Middle East and Egypt to the EU via Turkey. The others are the Inter-Connector pipeline linking Turkey to Italy via Greece, and the White Stream, which would run from Georgia to Romania across the Black Sea."
"The leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Egypt and Iraq [and] the EU [pushed] for a broad commitment on the expansion of a web of half a dozen east-west gas pipelines spanning thousands of miles (kilometers)" with "stable gas deliveries that bypass Russia." [24]
Egypt is too strategically important to the U.S. and its European and Israeli allies to permit its citizens to exercise control over the nation's military and energy policies, over what passes through the Suez Canal. Before that will be permitted to occur, the threats of a military takeover and intervention loom over the nation.
1) Navy NewsStand, February 1, 2011
2) Arabian Sea: Center Of West's 21st Century War
Stop NATO, October 25, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/arabian-sea-center-of-wests-21st-century-war
3) Egypt's Suez Canal and the US Navy's Fifth Fleet
Press Action, January 31, 2011
4) Department of Defense, January 31, 2011
5) Ibid
6) Jewish Telegraph Agency, February 1, 2011
7) CNN, January 28, 2011
8) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, January 27, 2011
9) Jerusalem Post, January 26, 2011
10) Israel Defense Forces, January 26, 2011
11) Arutz Sheva, January 27, 2011
12) Report: Warships in Suez prepare for Iran attack
Ynetnews, July 16, 2009
13) Azerbaijan And The Caspian: NATO's War For The World's Heartland
Stop NATO, June 10, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/azerbaijan-and-the-caspian-natos-war-for-the-worlds-heartland
14) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Operation Active Endeavor
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_7932.htm
15) Ibid
16) Ha'aretz, November 21, 2010
17) Israel: Global NATO's 29th Member
Stop NATO, January 17, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/israel-global-natos-29th-member
18) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, March 9, 2010
19) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations
November 12, 2010
20) Agence France-Presse, September 14, 2010
21) Jerusalem Post, February 1, 2011
22) Ibid
23) Azeri Press Agency, May 8, 2009
24) Robert Wielaard, EU Seeks to Enroll Caucasus Neighbors, Egypt and Iraq
into Energy Deal Bypassing Russia
Los Angeles Times, May 7, 2009
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
