Sometimes you read something and can only shake your head in dismay. Here, Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, writing in Asharq Alawsat, comments on the conspiracy theories rising up around the fact of Somali pirates. I really don’t understand why it’s necessary to look for a ‘hidden hand’ behind them. Piracy has proved lucrative, so far, with ransoms in the millions of dollars being paid by ship owners and insurers. Do we really need to look for spooks under the bed? As Al-Rashed spells out, there’s no need to look for an Israeli, Iranian, or even American hand behind the pirates. They have clear motives and the not-very-high technical ability to conduct their own operations.

The Somali Pirates….Another Conspiracy
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed

Before developing into the threat they are today, spreading terror throughout the region’s oceans, these Somali pirates where said to be Israelis or Iranians.

The thoughts and fears of all sides were brought to the surface, as is customary when facing the impossible or the incomprehensible. Yet, it is still incomprehensible as to how mere gangs of possibly illiterate bandits are able to highjack large sophisticated ships in an area teeming with international naval fleets? The answer to this question is divided between those who said that these operations were carried out by Israeli marine commandos, and others who fear that they were carried out by Iranian marine commandos.

The first group is confident in their belief, stating that the Israelis are looking for a pretext for imposing the Israeli navy on the Mandeb Strait (the entrance to the Red Sea between Yemen and Somalia). Some from the onset promoted the idea that the Israelis were the actual pirates under the guise of the Somalis. And what is their reason for this? They claim that the Israelis want to impose their presence and could find no other regional issue allowing them to do so except to offer Israeli assistance in confronting these pirates. However, the architects behind this theory do not realize that Israel, like all the other countries in the region as well as international navies, are permitted to travel in the Southern Red Sea so long as they remain in international waters 15km off the shores of Yemen and Somalia.
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