It would not have been politically wise to have overflown Israel for this purpose even if permission were (undoubtedly) forthcoming. Egypt has a very obvious incentive to approve, nay encourage overflight, and using that route is obviously consistent with the aim of protecting shipping. Some carrier advocates have been ventilating their usual arguments about the risk of relying on overflight permissions, rather overlooking the fact that Egypt would need to permit a Suez transit for the carrier to get on station (unless prepared to wait an extra few weeks for a trip via the Cape). There's also the fact that operations are hardly ever carried out against the wishes of *all* regional players; even carriers need shore logistic support for any kind of sustained operation.
I thought Jeremy Bowen's commentary on the 10 o'clock News last night was disgraceful, essentially parroting Houthi talking points on Israel and making no reference to international trade or freedom of navigation. One only has to look at the Norwegian, Iraqi and Turkish interests of the ships targeted thus far by the Houthis and Iran to realise that their stated constraint of only interfering with shipping to Israel is total rubbish. The official US and UK statements are at least clear.
Last edited by Easy Street; 12th Jan 2024 at 06:43.