Emergency meeting on piracy to be held in Cairo soon

SANA'A, Nov. 19 (Saba)- Under Yemeni-Egyptian chairmanship an emergency meeting on piracy is due to take place in Cairo next Thursday that will be dedicated to tackling the issue of the recently surging phenomenon in the area, Foreign minister said.



Abu Bakr al-Qirbi said the meeting will gather senior officials form the countries
overlooking the Red Sea and will discuss the issues of the sea security and the
effects of piracy on security and economic conditions in the region.

The meeting, furthermore, will deal with the issue of coordinating efforts of
these countries in fighting piracy and is expected to come up with recommendations
for securing the regional sea lanes.

Egypt called the meeting to come as culmination to the Yemeni efforts over the last
twenty days in preparing and making arrangements for the meeting, in a time pirate
attacks on merchant ships have surged.

In this regard, Vice Admiral Gerard Valin, commander of the French Forces in the
Maritime Zone of the Indian Ocean said Yemen is assuming its full responsibility
toward coordinating efforts to fight piracy.

" Piracy threats are large and a single country can't stand alone to face such a
phenomenon." Valin said.

In an interview with the Alsyasiah newspaper, issued by Saba, Valin denied that the
presence of multinational forces in the Red Sea is as part of a project for
internationalizing the Red Sea, saying these forces are doing their job in
coordination with the region countries to fight piracy.



He affirmed that the European naval forces presence in the area is in full
accordance with international laws and respect of regional nations.

With the piracy phenomenon taking a more complicated nature, the region countries
along with other world states fear the piracy acts are in the interests of
terrorists, since these acts may provide new resources for the terrorists. This is
based on what pirates usually do when they ask for ransoms.