Trump demands a free pass though Panama and Suez canals
US President Donald Trump has made headlines, once again, for attempting to sideline international law. On April 26th, Trump demanded that US ships should be allowed to pass through the Suez and Panama Canals free of charge, reports The New Arab and agencies. “Those canals would not exist without the United States of America,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. Though the Sisi government has yet to respond, Trump’s audacious remarks have sparked popular outrage in Egypt.
Mostafa Bakry, an Egyptian journalist and MP, derided Trump’s demands as baseless, reflecting typical “American bullying and attempts to blackmail sovereign nations.” In an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, The New Arab’s Arabic sister outlet, Bakry countered: “Mr. Trump, we are not one of the banana republics, nor are we a new American state.”
Bakry also warned that “what is happening in the Red Sea and Yemen is not about the Houthis or restoring Yemeni legitimacy. Its true aim is the militarisation and control of the Red Sea and domination over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait— and now Trump confirms this”.
While Trump has claimed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been tasked with addressing the issue “immediately”, legal experts have pushed back. Ayman Salama, a professor of international law, stressed that Egypt retains full sovereign authority over the Suez Canal, including the right to impose fees. He described Trump’s statements as “a serious challenge to international law and public order,” emphasising that this demand “lacks any legal or logical basis.”
The Suez Canal was nationalised by former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1956 –an important milestone in the country’s liberation from colonial meddling. Today, it remains a vital artery of global trade, accounting for around 10% of global maritime trade. However, the ongoing Houthi attacks on Israeli-linked ships have dramatically disrupted transit through the canal. Egypt reported a 60 percent drop in Suez Canal revenue last year.
In a direct challenge to Trump, Bakry fired back in a post on his X platform: “When the Egyptians dug the Suez Canal between 1859 and 1869, America was barely in a nursery. It seems you need to read up on history.”
The New Arab/Agencies, Maghrebi
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