Wednesday, September 18, 2013
A naval task force formed mainly of Middle Eastern states is required
to fight piracy off the Somali coast, says a prominent UK-based
academic. Peter Lehr, a lecturer in terrorism studies at the
University of St Andrews, emphasized the need for an “enduring process
and an enduring institution” to deploy naval ships and smaller
coastguard vessels in the Gulf of Aden.
Lehr, who is currently
writing a book on the history of piracy, told Al Arabiya that the
countries that should join such a force include Saudi Arabia, the UAE
and Oman.
“Saudi Arabia should probably be [the leader of such a taskforce], because they have the biggest navy in this area,” said Lehr.
Countries on the East coast of Africa do not have sufficient capabilities to fight piracy, he added.
“Nearly
all the way down to South Africa, you have almost no state with naval
assets. South Africa’s the only one, but they are too far away and not
interested in the Middle East,” he said.
Naval patrols by European Union member states, Japan, South Korea and
Russia, among others, have helped decrease piracy incidents in recent
years, according to the expert.
But Middle Eastern countries should now step in, said Lehr.
“What
they already have is basically [foreign task forces] doing their job,”
said Lehr, noting that rampant piracy would affect lucrative oil exports
from countries in the surrounding Middle East region.
“What
keeps them off at the moment is just international patrolling. If you
take this deterrent factor of warships away, you’re back to square one,”
he said.
A Saudi foreign ministry spokesperson was not available for comment about the proposed initiative.