Cairo denies “closing the Suez Canal in the face of Russian ships”
Activists on social media circulated reports about the closure of the Suez Canal to Russian ships, against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis and the military operations carried out by Russian forces in Ukraine, amid the imposition of harsh economic sanctions on Moscow by the United States of America and Europe.
Lieutenant-General Osama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority, responded to what was being circulated in a telephone interview on Sada Al-Balad channel, stressing that “America did not ask Egypt to close the shipping lane in the face of Russian ships due to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.”
In a separate context, Rabie said: “The Suez Canal is linked to the global trade movement.. There are many mechanisms for pricing the transit fees for ships passing through the shipping lane, and the charter prices of ships exceeded 20%, and oil prices exceeded $100 per barrel, and consequently, the fees for transit ships in the canal were increased.”
Osama Rabie added: “The Suez Canal is a global, neutral channel that is not subject to politics and wars, and we cannot prevent any ship from crossing the Suez Canal… We move the Suez Canal away from any political conditions between countries, and the Suez Canal is neutral.”
