Egypt intensifies diplomacy to shield Red Sea shipping as Houthi threats and Iran tensions rise

Egypt is stepping up consultations with fellow Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar, on regional developments, particularly the US-Israeli war on Iran and Houthi threats to the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.

On July 25, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty spoke with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, by phone to discuss the latest regional escalation.

The two ministers called for an immediate suspension of military operations and prioritising political and diplomatic solutions.

They also discussed the freedom of navigation in maritime waterways, rejecting attempts to disrupt international maritime traffic through them, according to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and Saudi media.

The Egyptian-Saudi talks came in the wake of renewed Iranian attacks against Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and an escalation of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, particularly its oil facilities.

The Iran-backed Yemeni militia had earlier declared a blockade on Saudi ports, threatening to target vessels calling at these ports.

The blockade announcement followed Saudi Arabia's 13 July attacks on Sanaa International Airport, which aimed to prevent an unauthorized Iranian aircraft from landing there.

The talks of the Egyptian and Saudi foreign ministers came only hours after Minister Abdelatty travelled to Doha to meet Qatari Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman.

The two ministers discussed ways of containing the current regional escalation and called for maintaining efforts to bring Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table, in light of the 14-point memorandum of understanding the two sides signed on 17 June, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Mounting anxieties

These talks are a tiny detail in the larger picture of Egypt's diplomatic activities to contain regional tensions.

The talks occurred after Minister Abdelatty spoke on the phone with his Iranian and Omani counterparts.

During these discussions, the Egyptian minister called for giving priority to diplomatic solutions, expressing fears of a possible widening of the scope of regional violence, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said.

He also called for protecting the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, describing the two maritime arteries as pillars of regional stability and essential to protecting the international trade and supply chains.

The same activities come amid a noticeable surge in Egyptian fears that the current escalation could open the door to a wider regional conflict, local analysts said.

"Egypt is concerned over the possibility of current regional tensions escalating, which will negatively affect its national security," Ambassador Rakha Ahmed, a member of the think tank, Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, told The New Arab.

This is why, he added, Cairo is working hard to push for diplomatic solutions that help the region avoid an all-out war.

When the first round of the Iran war erupted in February this year, Yemen's Houthis stood, without jumping into the fray, even as other Iranian proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, joined the fighting.

Some analysts attributed the Houthis move to close contacts between Cairo and Tehran and Iran's desire to not to antagonize Egypt.

While it expressed support for GCC states reeling under Iranian attacks, Cairo did not harshly denounce Tehran during this first round of the war, which brought it under fire, especially from ordinary people in the GCC region.

Cairo's balancing act was grounded in Egyptian fears of Iranian retaliation, including by ordering the Houthis to attack maritime traffic in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the same analysts said.

Economic cost

The current escalation in Egyptian diplomatic efforts is also rooted in Cairo's fears of the toll renewed Houthi attacks in the Red Sea would take on the Egyptian economy, observers said.

This toll would add to the economic pains Egypt has sustained from the Iran war so far, they added.

The war has caused deep economic suffering to the populous, economically struggling country, forcing it to spend more on imports, particularly fuel, and triggering the flight of billions of dollars in foreign capital, which put pressure on the Egyptian national currency.

"This pressure has caused commodity prices to rise noticeably, giving suffering to millions of people across the country," said Yumn al-Hamaqi, an economics professor at Cairo University.

Speaking to TNA, she added that developments have weakened the purchasing power of most citizens, who are unable to meet their basic needs.

Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait during the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza in 2024 and 2025 caused a dramatic drop in maritime traffic in these two crucial chokepoints.

This caused a significant revenue loss for the Suez Canal, an economic lifeline of the Egyptian state, according to the Egyptian government.

Current Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and the possibility that the militia would close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait have already caused a dramatic decline in the number of vessels traversing the strait.

On 26 July, only 11 commodity vessels passed through the strait, the lowest number in months, according to data and analytics platform Kpler, which provides intelligence on global commodity flows.

These dismal developments place Egypt in a sharp political and security dilemma, analysts said.

While it needs to protect its national security and economic interests and support fellow Arab states in the face of Iranian and Houthi attacks, Egypt does not need to add fuel to the fire of regional tensions by directly confronting either Tehran or the Yemeni militia, they added.

"Egypt believes that diplomacy can defuse Red Sea tensions," Mervat Zakaria, a researcher at the Egyptian think tank, Arab Centre for Research and Studies, told TNA.

"It knows that it can use its contacts, especially with Tehran and other important regional players, to give a chance for diplomacy to prevail and restore calm to the Red Sea and in the region as a whole," she added.