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06 February 2011 By Rick Rozoff On February 1
General James Mattis, commander of United States
Central Command whose area of responsibility includes
Egypt on its western end, stated that Washington
currently has no plans to reinforce naval presence off
the coast of that country, but added that in the event
of the closure of the Suez Canal: "Were it to happen obviously we would have to deal
with it diplomatically, economically, militarily…." After the canal was nationalized in 1956 by the
government of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt was attacked
by Israel, Britain and France. The day before Mattis' statement the
nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and
its carrier strike group – consisting of a guided
missile cruiser, three guided missile destroyers, a
fast combat support ship and Carrier Air Wing One
(which had been deployed for the Suez Crisis in
1956-1957) with fighter and surveillance aircraft and
Seahawk helicopters – crossed through the Strait of
Gibraltar from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean
Sea on its way to the Suez Canal. The warships are
scheduled for operations in the Gulf of Aden off the
coasts of Somalia and Yemen and in the Arabian Sea to
support the war in Afghanistan. In the words of the commander of the carrier strike
group, the deployment "sends a strong signal that the
Enterprise Strike Group has arrived to operate and
integrate with our partners in the region." [1] U.S. and NATO warships regularly transit the canal
for operations off the Horn of Africa and for the
escalating war in South Asia. With the expansion of protests in Egypt calling for
the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, the
prospect of the Suez Canal being closed would severely
hamper Western military operations across the Arabian
Sea from Somalia to Pakistan, the central locus of
global naval deployments and warfighting in the 21st
century. [2] In addition to being a gateway for the passage of
warships including carriers and their warplanes, the
Suez Canal is a major transit point for oil emanating
from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea en route to the
Mediterranean Sea for European consumption. "The
waterway is the fastest crossing from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Indian Ocean. Should it close, tankers
would have to sail around southern Africa. About 7.5%
of world sea trade is carried via the canal today."
"Energy industry analysts…view the intimidation
factor posed by the U.S. military's presence in the
region as beneficial to Western corporate interests in
case a new government in Cairo does indeed seek to
block shipments of oil and other goods through the
canal." [3] This week it was announced that several European
oil companies, among them Norway's Statoil, Royal
Dutch Shell and British Petroleum, halted drilling in
Egypt, closed down local offices and began evacuating
the families of foreign workers as well as
non-essential staff. On January 31 U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates
held phone conversations with his Egyptian and Israeli
counterparts, defense ministers Mohamed Hussein
Tantawi and Ehud Barak. Pentagon spokesman Geoff
Morrell would not disclose the contents of the talks
to the press. President Barack Obama praised the U.S.-armed and
-trained Egyptian armed forces for their
"professionalism," stating: "I urge the military to help ensure this time of
change is peaceful." Chief of the U.S. General Staff Admiral Michael
Mullen spoke by phone with Egyptian chief of staff
Lieutenant General Sami Enan on the same day, after
the latter and the high-level military delegation he
led hastily left Washington, D.C. ahead of the
completion of scheduled week-long consultations at the
Pentagon. The Internet is rife with speculation that
Enan may be slated to head an interim government
should President Mubarak be prevailed upon to exit the
scene in the imminent future. Afterward, Mullen affirmed: "We've had a very strong relationship with the
Egyptian military for decades. And as I look to the
future, I certainly look to that to continue. "I look forward to continuing to work with the
Egyptian military. We look to a future that certainly,
we hope, is stable, within Egypt as well as,
obviously, in the region." [4] According to the Pentagon's website: "Mullen
stressed the importance of Egypt's military as a
stabilizing force. The United States military has had
a close and continuing relationship with Egyptian
officers and noncommissioned officers since the Camp
David Accords in 1978, he noted." [5] In a recent article the Jewish Telegraph Agency
reminded its readers that: "The largely American-equipped and American-trained
Egyptian army — by far the most powerful military in
the Arab world — numbers around 650,000 men, with 60
combat brigades, 3500 tanks and 600 fighter planes.
For Israel, the main strategic significance of the
peace with Egypt is that it has been able to take the
threat of full-scale war against its strongest foe out
of the military equation." [6] In announcing the precipitate departure of the
Egyptian military delegation from Washington, Marine
General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, confirmed that the visit had been
curtailed because of domestic developments, stating
the U.S. and its military allies "go through all sorts
of contingencies." [7] Although the NATO website does not mention it, it
is to be assumed that Enan's top-level delegation
attended the chiefs of defense and military
representatives meeting at NATO Headquarters in
Brussels on January 26 and 27, particularly the first
day's Mediterranean Dialogue session. The meetings
included the top commanders and other military
representatives of 66 nations – more than a third of
all the countries in the world – and was presided over
by Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, Chairman of the bloc's
Military Committee. Other participants included NATO's
two Strategic Commanders, Admiral James Stavridis,
Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and General Stephane
Abrial, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, as
well as the Chairman of the European Union's Military
Committee, General Hakan Syren. Topics of deliberation included NATO's two ongoing
naval operations, Active Endeavor in the Mediterranean
Sea and Ocean Shield in the Gulf of Aden. The Alliance conclave also included a meeting of
military representatives from NATO Mediterranean
Dialogue partnership members Egypt, Israel, Algeria,
Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, who "agreed
on the further development of Cooperative Security
core task as outlined in the new Strategic Concept"
endorsed at last November's summit in Portugal. [8] Outgoing Israel Defense Forces [IDF] Chief of
General Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, who
is to step down from his post on February 14, was a
guest of honor at the 66-nation NATO military meeting
in Brussels. He addressed the assembled military
chiefs and told them: "Cooperation with NATO will continue to be of
extreme importance for Israel, particularly in the
face of countries that are trying to obtain nuclear
and nonconventional weapons. NATO's decision to
develop a missile defense system demonstrates the
worrisome reality that radical countries and maybe
even terrorist groups are a clear and present danger,
not just to the Middle East but also to Europe." [9] Delivering a speech at the Mediterranean Dialogue
session, Ashkenazi stated: "NATO currently faces the very same challenges [as
Israel does at home] in Afghanistan, and its member
countries encounter complex strategic, tactical and
logistic issues in different arenas of war." He also thanked chairman of the NATO Military
Committee Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola and his
counterparts for their "friendship and partnership."
[10] Ashkenazi was accompanied on his trip to NATO
Headquarters by his wife, IDF spokesperson Brigadier
General Avi Benayahu, head of the International
Military Cooperation Department in the Planning
Directorate Colonel Hani Caspi, Israeli Defense
Attache to NATO Colonel Uri Halperin and Aide-de-Camp
to the Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant Colonel
Amos HaCohen. As part of the conference "a ceremonial dinner
[was] held at the home of the Chairman of the NATO
Military Committee, Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, where
he…bid a farewell to Ashkenazi." [11] The Suez Canal is Israel's nexus between the Red
Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and Europe. In July of
2009 Israeli "missile class warships sailed through
the Suez Canal to the Red Sea ten days after a
submarine capable of launching a nuclear missile
strike" – a German-made Dolphin – had made the same
journey in a move "apparently done in preparation for
a possible attack on Iran's nuclear facilities." [12] The canal is also the choke point through which
Caspian Sea oil and natural gas transported across the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum and Nabucco
pipelines are projected to reach Israel in addition to
plans to ship hydrocarbons to the Israeli
Mediterranean port city of Ashkelon and from there by
pipeline to the Red Sea port of Eilat where they can
be shipped on tankers across the Indian Ocean to East
Asia. [13] The Suez Canal is also the convergence point of two
of the six navy fleets the U.S. employs to patrol the
world's seas and oceans: The Sixth Fleet,
headquartered in Italy, and the Fifth Fleet, based in
Bahrain. The Sixth Fleet's area of responsibility
encompasses the entire Mediterranean, since October of
2001 paralleled and reinforced by NATO's Operation
Active Endeavor, and the Fifth's the Red Sea, the
Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf and the eastern coast of
Africa south to Kenya. The Enterprise Carrier Strike Group headed to the
Suez Canal will be attached to the Fifth Fleet when it
arrives in the Red Sea on its way to the Indian Ocean.
Both fleets have several naval task forces assigned
to them, including amphibious assault, battle force,
carrier strike group, expeditionary combat, Marine
Expeditionary Unit, maritime surveillance, naval
interdiction, oil terminal protection (in Iraq),
patrol and reconnaissance, sealift, special operations
and submarine warfare groups. The Fifth Fleet and Naval Forces Central Command
are jointly in charge of Combined Task Forces 52, 150,
151, 152 and 158 in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and
the Somali Basin, and the Persian Gulf, which are
U.S.-led multinational naval groups with the
participation of NATO and Asia-Pacific military
partners like Britain, Canada, Denmark, France,
Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,
Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore,
South Korea and Thailand. The Sixth Fleet at any given time has as many as
forty ships, 175 aircraft and 21,000 personnel
deployed in the Mediterranean. The fleet overlaps with Naval Forces Europe as the
Fifth Fleet does with Naval Forces Central Command.
The commanders of the first two also hold NATO
positions, with the commander of Naval Forces Europe
serving as head of Allied Joint Force Command Naples
and the commander of the Sixth Fleet as commander of
Allied Joint Command Lisbon and of Naval Striking and
Support Forces NATO. As examined earlier, NATO's Operation Active
Endeavor also incorporates the entire Mediterranean
Sea, including Egypt's northern coast, and over the
past nine years has contacted over 110,000 ships and
boarded an estimated 160 "suspect" ships. The now permanent operation is "enabling NATO to
strengthen its relations with partner countries,
especially those participating in the Alliance's
Mediterranean Dialogue." [14] By NATO's account: "In terms of energy alone, some 65 per cent of the
oil and natural gas consumed in Western Europe pass
through the Mediterranean each year, with major
pipelines connecting Libya to Italy and Morocco to
Spain. For this reason, NATO ships are systematically
carrying out preparatory route surveys in ‘choke'
points as well as in important passages and harbours
throughout the Mediterranean. "What happens in practice is that merchant ships
passing through the Eastern Mediterranean are hailed
by patrolling NATO naval units and asked to identify
themselves and their activity. This information is
then reported to both NATO's Allied Maritime Component
Commander in Naples, Italy, and the NATO Shipping
Centre in Northwood, the United Kingdom. If anything
appears unusual or suspicious, a boarding team may
enter the vessel to inspect documentation and cargo."
"The increased NATO presence in the Mediterranean
has also enhanced the Alliance's security cooperation
programme with seven countries in the wider
Mediterranean region – Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan,
Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. This programme – the
Mediterranean Dialogue – was set up in 1995 to
contribute to regional security and stability and to
achieve better mutual understanding between NATO and
its Mediterranean Partners. "The operation is under the overall command of
Joint Forces Command (JFC), Naples, and is conducted
from the Allied Maritime Component Command Naples,
Italy (CC-Mar Naples) through a Task Force deployed in
the Mediterranean. Occasionally, transiting ships and
aircraft provide additional associated support to the
operation." [15] Active Endeavor is one of eight components
resulting from the U.S.-dominated alliance's
activation of its Article 5 collective military
assistance provision after September 1, 2001. At its 2004 summit in Istanbul, Turkey, NATO
expanded the surveillance and interdiction mission as
well as adopting the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative
to elevate Mediterranean Dialogue partnerships with
Egypt, Israel, Algeria, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco
and Tunisia to the level of the Partnership for Peace
program that graduated twelve Eastern European nations
to full NATO membership from 1999-2009. Last November Alliance Secretary General Anders
Fogh Rasmussen told Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper that
NATO is ready to dispatch troops to the Gaza Strip and
the West Bank, stating: "If a Middle East peace
agreement is reached, an international military force
will be needed to monitor and implement it." [16] The
same source revealed that "The North Atlantic Council
– NATO's most senior governing body – also announced
it would launch bilateral relations (in contrast to
collective ties) with Israel and the six Arab states
that comprise the Mediterranean Dialogue." Israel is the only Middle Eastern nation not in
Central Command's area of responsibility (it is
assigned to U.S. European Command) – as Egypt is the
only African country not in U.S. Africa Command's –
and is all but officially NATO's 29th member state.
[17] A few months before, Rasmussen visited Jordan and
Bahrain to pressure the host countries to "contribute
to alliance naval operations…in the Eastern
Mediterranean and the Gulf of Aden," Operation Active
Endeavor and Operation Ocean Shield, respectively.
[18] In the previous month twelve warships attached to
an enlarged Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2)
began what were identified as surge operations in the
Eastern Mediterranean. "SNMG2 has been reinforced with
additional ships which, along with submarine and air
surveillance assets, will ensure sweeping coverage
from Crete to the far-eastern reaches of the
Mediterranean Sea." That its operations are being
augmented by Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS)
aircraft and submarines marks a dramatic escalation of
NATO strength in the region. [19] In the month before the naval buildup in the
Eastern Mediterranean, five ships from the Standing
NATO Maritime Group 2 docked in Casablanca "to boost
ties with Morocco." "A joint training session between NATO forces and
the Moroccan navy is also planned, according to the
Dutch commander of SNMG2, Michiel Hijmans, who will be
in Casablanca for the Sept. 16-19 visit. "SNMG2 regularly participates in the Active
Endeavour Operation…in the Mediterranean." [20] After being feted at NATO Headquarters and at the
home of the bloc's Military Committee chairman last
week, Israel's Chief of General Staff Ashkenazi said
that mounting demonstrations in Egypt "could force
Israel to adapt to a new security reality in the
Middle East." "The quiet is fragile and the security reality can
easily change," he said on the sidelines of a military
exercise in the south of Israel. "It is enough to look
at what is happening in Egypt to understand this."
[21] Ashkenazi added that the Israel Defense Forces were
maintaining a "watchful eye" on the Gaza Strip
adjoining Egypt. Shaul Mofaz, the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and
Defense Committee chairman and a former defense
minister, "said that Israel would need to conduct a
new strategic review due to the possibility of a
regime change in Egypt." [22] In addition to U.S. Sixth Fleet, NATO and Israeli
naval forces in the Eastern Mediterranean, NATO
nations are also deployed there as part of the UNIFIL
(United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) Maritime
Task Force, which since 2006 has run an effective
blockade of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast. Currently
there are three German, one Greek, one Italian and one
Turkish ship assigned to the mission. Other nations
that have contributed to the interdiction operation
include Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, the
Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. 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 http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/../arabian-sea-center-of-wests-21st-century-war 3) Egypt's Suez Canal and the US Navy's Fifth
Fleet http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/../azerbaijan-and-the-caspian-natos-war-for-the-worlds-heartland 14) North Atlantic Treaty Organization http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_7932.htm 15) Ibid http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/../israel-global-natos-29th-member 18) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, March 9, 2010 |
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