Eritrea, Afwerki: "The Emirates are behind Ethiopia's claims for access to the Red Sea."

The city of Assab, located in the southern part of Eritrea along the Red Sea coast, is implicitly claimed by some Ethiopian political and strategic sectors for historical, economic and geopolitical reasons. Behind Ethiopia's "reckless" claims to gain access to the Red Sea is the United Arab Emirates' plan to create a port system to control the Horn of Africa region.

This is the accusation leveled by the Eritrean president. Isaiah AfwerkiIn an interview with state media and published in English on the state-run website "Shabait," Afwerki once again accused Addis Ababa of seeking to destabilize regional balances, specifically by grabbing the strategically located Eritrean port of Assab. "At one point, Ethiopia's ruling Prosperity Party (PP) floated the idea of diverting all its imports through Assab, abandoning the port of Djibouti and thus wiping out its estimated $4 billion in annual revenue. We told them we would not consider such a plan to harm a neighboring country," Afwerki said, further pointing to Ethiopia's "divisive and provocative efforts to secure ports and naval bases in Somaliland," a breakaway state with which Ethiopia signed a controversial memorandum of understanding last year. For the Eritrean president, "these are not the PP's programs, but the imagination of the President of the United Arab Emirates (President of the United Arab Emirates), who wants to create a constellation of ports under his control throughout the region."

The city of Assab, located in southern Eritrea along the Red Sea coast, is implicitly claimed by some Ethiopian political and strategic sectors for historical, economic, and geopolitical reasons. Assab, one of Eritrea's two main ports along with Massawa, is located near the border with Ethiopia and was Ethiopia's main maritime trade outlet for decades before Eritrean independence. When Eritrea gained independence in 1993, Ethiopia lost access to the sea and also to the port of Assab, which it traditionally used for its imports and exports. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has repeatedly stated recently that access to the sea is an "existential necessity," suggesting "peaceful but inevitable" solutions. Addis Ababa aims to reduce dependence on Djibouti's ports, through which 95 percent of Ethiopian trade passes, and a land and sea corridor through Assab would dramatically lower logistical costs and give Ethiopia strategic autonomy.