The liberal Egyptian Ghad Elthawra Party said, “What happened in the Suez Canal to the delinquency of one of the giant ships and the suspension of navigation until now aims to weaken Egypt’s capabilities internationally and the role of the Suez Canal as a global maritime corridor unique in its geography, its economic components, and its strategic importance as one of the most important capabilities of Egypt throughout its history.”

This came in a statement by the Party today, Sunday, in which it explained that targeting Egypt and weakening its position began since Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi who took control of power in 2013 after he abandoned the ambitious Suez Canal corridor development project, which was a quantum leap to develop the capabilities of the canal and make better use of the genius of its geographical location in the field of transportation.

Maritime, container exchange, providing maritime transport services as well as manufacturing on the eastern and western canal tributaries from Port Said to Suez.

The Party added that abandoning this project, which began as a free gift for existing competitive projects, so that the Suez Canal remains merely a waterway without any significant development in capabilities or maximizing capabilities, is a crime against future generations, pointing out that Sisi has hidden its features by digging a branch for it under the name of the New Suez Canal, Although this branch was excavated successively similar examples throughout the eras of  ruling Egypt.

Ghad Elthawra pointed out that on April 8, 2016, Sisi signed an agreement to demarcate the maritime borders between Egypt and Saudi Arabia and insisted on its implementation despite widespread popular rejection of it, as well as the historic judiciary rulings issued by the State Council to nullify them.

Israel relinquishes Egypt absolute sovereignty over the sea straits at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba, thus making the Strait of Tiran an international maritime corridor not subject to Egyptian control, giving Israel the opportunity to revive all its projects to connect the Red Sea – via the Gulf of Aqaba – to the Mediterranean, and to compete and weaken the role of the Suez Canal, like its dream. The expansion will restart the Eilat-Ashkelon line.

Ghad Elthawra noted that with the beginning of 2021, sources in Israel announced that they were about to revive this project in order to invest in the wave of normalization, with Emirati financing and unfortunate Gulf support, which would help it achieve absolute superiority in capturing all strings of control in the movement of oil, and turning it into a major regional center for the transportation of oil. Emirates and Saudi Arabia to Europe and North America.

It added that the accident of stranding of the ship “Ever Given” cast a shadow over the efficiency of Egypt’s performance of its role in controlling a maritime corridor of such great importance globally, and drew the world’s attention with the suspension of navigation and news of the rise in oil prices, to the search for alternatives to transport goods, oil and gas. This leads the Party to wonder about the causes and circumstances of this accident for this very modern giant ship that entered service in 2018.

In its statement, the Party stressed the need for the Egyptian nation to act with all its elements and to realize the dangers of what is happening targeting the Suez Canal and working forcefully to thwart these hidden malicious schemes, especially as it comes in conjunction with the targeting of Egypt’s most important resources at all (the Nile River) due to the principles agreement signed by Sisi. In 2015, the statement also called for a transparent investigation and publicized results of the causes that led to the ship’s stranding, and the revival of the Suez Canal corridor development project, and it also calls upon the state’s sovereign institutions to announce their categorical and decisive rejection of any alternative projects to the Suez Canal regionally.