UN officials review plan to build canal on Egypt-Israel border

Can another channel be created, or is this just an April Fool's prank?

An aerial view taken on March 27, 2021 from the porthole of a commercial plane shows stranded ships waiting in queue in the Gulf of Suez to cross the Suez Canal at its southern entrance near the Red Sea port city of Suez, as the waterway remains blocked by the Panama-flagged container ship “MV Ever Given” [MAHMOUD KHALED/AFP via Getty Images]

UN officials are reviewing plans to build a new canal along the Egypt-Israel border following the week-long blockage caused by the grounded cargo ship Ever Given, the Guardian has reported.

Hundreds of ships were caught in a bottleneck on the Suez Canal after a Panamanian vessel, the Ever Given, ran aground on Tuesday last week.

Clothes, live animals and PPE were all caught in huge delays whilst authorities worked to free the ship, which was the size of four football fields.

The new canal, ‘Suez 2’, would run into the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea and could take five years to build.

The UK has said it is prepared to take a leading role and that the Foreign Office is aware of the plans, which are being overseen by the UN committee for Trade Routes Uniting Economies.

READ: UAE threatens to jail April Fool’s pranksters

A route through Iraq and Syria was disregarded as being hazardous whilst another alternative could see the Nile connected to the Red Sea.

The Suez Canal is the shortest route between Europe and Asia through which $9.6 billon worth of trade passes through every day.

However, since the Ever Given got stuck on the vial waterway, it has brough global trade to a near standstill and other countries have come forward with suggestions for alternative routes.

Earlier this week the Iranian Ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali, proposed a shipping lane to pass through Iran.

According to Anadolu Agency, Iran has for years promoted a north-south trade corridor connecting India to Russia and passing through Iran as a more viable alternative to the Suez Canal.

Where you fooled by this?

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