Egypt will unlikley cave into US pressure to "repay" it for bombing the Houthis in Yemen, despite suggestions by Trump administration officials that it should. In late March, The Atlantic magazine published a leaked conversation between US administration officials on the open-source encrypted messaging service Signal about planned US air strikes against the Yemeni militant group.
During the discussion, US officials argued that bombing the Houthis in a bid to reopen Red Sea maritime traffic primarily benefited Europe and Egypt. Vice President JD Vance called it "bailing Europe out again," while Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth criticised allies’ "European free-loading" as "pathetic." Egypt was implicitly grouped in with these allies as benefiting economically through the Suez Canal without sharing risks or costs. Even more bluntly, Stephen Miller indicated they’d “make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return.”
Vital waterway
The Houthis, a Yemeni militant group, began attacking Israeli-linked shipping in the Red Sea following Tel Aviv's devastating assault on Gaza in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. Wary of passing through the waterway—where approximately 14% of international maritime trade and 30% of containerised trade transits—ships instead sailed around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to avoid risk, dealing a huge blow to international trade.
The Houthis have repeatedly made clear their attacks in the Red Sea will cease once Israel ends its assault on Gaza. Staying true to their word, they stopped all attacks in the waterway when a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on 19 January. This gave Egypt some much-needed respite, as it had also suffered from the drop in maritime trade passing through the Suez Canal—a vital trade artery and major source of foreign currency for the country—losing out on approximately $7bn in revenues due to the disruption.
This relief was short-lived, however, after Israel broke the ceasefire by renewing its intense bombing of Gaza on 18 March. Since then, Egypt has redoubled its efforts to get the truce back on track. Beyond mediating between Hamas and Israel, Cairo is also reaching out to Iran—a key backer of Hamas.
