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A flurry of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia has prompted an emergency meeting between Red Sea bordering nations to contend with the problem. The meeting is to take place in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, with senior officials from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen attending.
It comes following allegations that pirates who seized a Saudi oil tanker on Saturday 15th November are demanding a ransom of $25m (£17m). However, a spokesman for the owners of the tanker has cast scepticism on the demands, which were reported by AFP news agency.
The Sirius Star, the largest tanker ever hijacked, is loaded with 2m barrels of crude oil - a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output - worth more than $100m. It is now anchored off the Somali coast with around 25 crew members - including two Britons - being held as hostages.
According to a spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry, "all options are open" in trying to resolve the crisis. On Wednesday, the foreign minister for Saudi Arabia verified that the ship's owners were negotiating with the pirates.
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he could not comment on negotiations. However, he did say: "There is a strong view of the British government, and actually the international community, that payments for hostage-taking are only an encouragement to further hostage-taking and we will be approaching this issue in a very delicate way, in a way that puts the security and safety of the hostages to the fore."
With the British Royal Navy directing the European response to the incident, Mr Miliband said: "There is a fundamental problem in the Gulf of Aden. That is why the deployment of the European force is the right thing to do."
The pirates who captured the tanker on Saturday are said to be an experienced group with contacts in Dubai and neighbouring countries. It has been suggested that a large part of their ransom money from previous hijackings has been used to purchase new boats and weapons as well as widen their network across the Horn of Africa.
Russia has declared it is to send additional warships to the area to counter the pirates. Earlier this month, one of its destroyers, the Neustrashimy, frightened off pirates who were attempting to hijack ships in the Gulf of Aden.
In a rare triumph over the pirate gangs, the Indian navy said it had sunk a so-called "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden, several hundred kilometres north of the area where the Sirius Star was attacked by the hijackers. The Indian navy said in a statement that the INS Tabar attacked the mother ship on Tuesday after it failed to stop for an inspection and opened fire.
Shipping companies are now said to be deliberating over the risks of using the short-cut route to and from Europe through the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal. However, taking the alternative route around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope would add several weeks to average journey times and significantly increase the cost of goods for consumers.
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