Egypt ramps up Red Sea naval presence amid Houthi threats and Damietta fallout

Egypt is reportedly deploying additional warships to the southern entrance of the Red Sea near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

The Egyptian navy has sent modern frigates and corvettes to the area, amid rising threats to maritime traffic by the Houthi militia in Yemen, some local media outlets have said.

This development comes in the wake of a 29 July drone attack on an American regasification vessel anchored at the Egyptian Mediterranean Port of Damietta, which sparked a fire that spread to a nearby Greek gas-storage tanker.

The Damietta strike has left Egyptian officials worried about the security of their country's ports and sea lanes, with the Red Sea fast becoming a major flashpoint.

The Iran-backed Houthi movement has declared an embargo on Saudi ports, threatening to attack vessels calling at them. It has launched repeated attacks on Saudi oil tankers and other vessels calling at or leaving the same ports.

Local security analysts expect the 29 July drone strike at Damietta will push Egypt to tighten security around its ports and key maritime routes, especially the Red Sea.

"Egypt has already stepped up measures to secure these areas, having made a comprehensive review of its security systems after the Damietta attack," Gen. Nasr Salem, a former Egyptian army reconnaissance commander, said to The New Arab.

He added that energy routes face unprecedented threats, with the current regional escalation expanding the scope of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Critical energy bypass

Egyptian authorities have started an enquiry into the attack, pledging to take measures to protect national security and interests. Cairo has not so far officially blamed anybody for the Damietta drone attack.

No party has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iran and the Houthi militia have denied involvement in the strike.

The strike comes as Egypt gains greater importance as an alternative route for oil exports by GCC states, especially Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh has increased its reliance on the East-West Pipeline to move its oil out to international markets, amid chaos in the Strait of Hormuz and mounting Houthi threats in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

Stretching over 1,200 kilometres from the eastern part of the kingdom to the Port of Yanbu on its western Red Sea shore, the pipeline now transports millions of barrels of Saudi crude oil.

When it arrives at Yanbu, the oil is loaded onto tankers that sail to Sokhna Port on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, where it is pumped into the SUMED pipeline and then transported to Sidi Kriri on the Egyptian Mediterranean coast (around 240 kilometres west of Damietta) for delivery to international markets.

Treading carefully

The Egyptian investigation into the 29 July drone attack at Damietta may take time to produce results, particularly amid apparent keenness by Cairo not to accuse any party without tangible evidence.

On 1 August, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry appealed to local and foreign media to "stick to the facts" in reporting about the incident.

Egyptian officials, including the president and foreign minister, have barely mentioned the attack since then, probably to give investigators space to work without pressure.

On 2 August, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met the prime minister and the minister of transport to discuss the upgrade of the nation's ports.

During the meeting, Sisi appeared notably serious, prompting some social-media users to link his demeanour to the Damietta incident.

A day after the Damietta attack, Egypt joined a 14-nation maritime defence alliance formed and led by Saudi Arabia to safeguard maritime traffic in the Red Sea and through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

Egypt's exact role in the alliance remains unclear, but its participation reflects its growing concern over Red Sea security, analysts point out.

This growing concern also comes as Iran tries to expand the conflict into the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, hoping to raise the economic cost of the US campaign against it.

Ahmed Youssef, a professor of political science at Cairo University, cited what he described as "persistent" Iranian attempts to expand the current conflagration.

"The Iranians want to choke emerging alternative energy routes," Professor Youssef told TNA. "They do this to force regional and international powers to pressure the US to suspend its attacks and naval blockade on Iran."

Economic stakes

Egyptian concerns over mounting threats to the safety of maritime traffic in the Red Sea are rooted in Egypt's economic stakes in the region, experts said.

Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping during the Israeli war on Gaza in 2024 and 2025 economically-struggling Egypt dearly, causing the Suez Canal, a vital foreign currency source for the Egyptian treasury, over $10 billion in losses.

By hitting Damietta, the attackers seem to have wanted to damage Egypt's ambitions to become a key alternative route for GCC oil and an Eastern Mediterranean energy hub, the same experts said.

Meanwhile, in making additional deployments near the southern entrance of the Red Sea, Egypt utilizes its military assets in the region, including a military base on its south-eastern Red Sea border.

Known as Berenice, the base was opened in January 2020 in response to growing Houthi threats to maritime traffic in the Red Sea.

Some media outlets have raised questions about the purported Red Sea deployments and whether they portend Egyptian military action in the area.

Security experts in Cairo describe the deployments as "precautionary" only and dismiss the idea of any unprovoked Egyptian action.

"Egyptian military action in the Red Sea will depend on the type of threat our national security will face," Gen. Salem said.

"The sure thing, however, is that the Egyptian leadership is keen to avoid entanglement in the current cycle of violence, preferring prevention to intervention," he added.