The Media Line: Why Damietta Drone Strike Proves Egypt Can’t Hide From Regional War 

Why Damietta Drone Strike Proves Egypt Can’t Hide From Regional War 

The attack on two gas vessels at the Mediterranean port highlights Egypt’s growing exposure to a conflict it has largely sought to avoid 

By Waseem Abu Mahadi / The Media Line 

[CAIRO] Egypt’s cabinet said Thursday that a drone caused a fire aboard two vessels at Damietta port, after initial accounts from Egyptian security sources disputed reports that the fire was caused by a drone strike. “Following the containment of the fire that affected two vessels at Damietta Port, preliminary investigations by the relevant authorities determined that it was caused by a drone,” the cabinet said in a statement.  

The fire occurred Wednesday, July 29. No party has claimed responsibility, the cabinet said, and investigations are continuing. The statement said Egypt was taking “the necessary measures” to safeguard its interests and national security. It did not say where the drone originated from.  

Hany El-Aasar, executive director of the National Center for Studies and a researcher specializing in security and military affairs, said the attack marked a departure for Egypt. “The Damietta incident is clearly deliberate and intentional,” El-Aasar told The Media Line. He said the attack severely damaged Egyptian economic interests, even though the vessels were not Egyptian. “It also detracts from the legitimacy of the political system, which rests on protecting and securing the state,” he said.  

El-Aasar said Egyptian intelligence was considering every possibility, but he assessed that the available evidence pointed most strongly to the Houthi movement. He cited the group’s assessment of Egypt’s response to its escalation against Saudi Arabia and how far Cairo might go to police Red Sea shipping. “The group functions as Iran’s military arm, and that shaped a strike aimed at American interests,” El-Aasar argued. However, he also said Iran likely did not order the attack because Tehran did not want new enemies or to jeopardize its improved relations with Cairo.  

Days before the strike, Damietta appeared on a map of potential targets broadcast by Iranian state television, under the headline “What could be the targets of Iran’s revenge against Ukraine?” The accompanying text described the port’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility as having an annual capacity of 5.2 million tons and serving as a gateway for gas exports to Europe. Iranian media had said openly that Tehran would retaliate by striking targets connected to oil and gas shipments to Europe.  

The broadcast followed a Ukrainian drone strike on July 25 against vessels in the Caspian Sea. Kyiv said it had targeted a Russian warship and ships carrying Iranian-linked military cargo. Iran said one of the vessels hit was the civilian cargo ship Anna, and that a sailor was killed. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the attack a violation of the UN Charter and said it “cannot go unanswered.”  

The two countries’ foreign ministers spoke on July 28. Araghchi wrote afterward that Ukraine’s Andrii Sybiha had assured him the attack was unintentional. “Iran does not seek escalation either but made clear any attack on our citizens or interests is unacceptable.”  

Damietta was struck the following day.  

Egypt’s Petroleum Ministry said Wednesday that a fire had broken out aboard a regasification vessel and a storage vessel at Damietta and was brought under control with no casualties reported. The ministry did not initially give a cause and urged news outlets and social media users to rely only on its official statements.  

British maritime security firm Ambrey said Wednesday that at least one drone had struck the US-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged floating storage and regasification unit Energos Winter, and that fire spread to a second vessel, the Greek-owned Gaslog Salem. The attack occurred at 14:20 GMT.  

“The cabinet’s promised measures amount to a forensic exercise,” El-Aasar said. “They will establish responsibility and motive, assess whether the weapon matches the suspected party’s known arsenal, determine how it got through, and review security at Egyptian ports and other critical facilities.”  

Drones previously struck the Egyptian towns of Taba and Nuweiba in October 2023, injuring six people. Egypt’s military said they came from the southern Red Sea but did not identify who launched them.  

El-Aasar said Cairo viewed the previous incident as accidental spillover because the Houthis were targeting Israel. He expected the government to describe the Damietta attack in terms that avoid drawing Egypt into the US war with Iran.  

Talaat Taha, a political analyst and expert on Arab affairs, expected a tougher response. Egypt would stay out of the war, he told The Media Line, but could take the case to the UN Security Council, escalate diplomatically, or strike the responsible party.  

“Egypt can keep things under control without triggering a regional war,” he said.  

If Iran were found responsible, Taha said, Cairo’s diplomatic opening with Tehran would end. “Egypt and Iran would go back to zero,” he said. “That file would close, and we would be back to square one.”  

However, in his view, relations with the Gulf would strengthen in the wake of such an attack. “Our relations with the Gulf states are strong, and Gulf security is part of Egypt’s security,” he said, noting that Egypt had already paid a high price for Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping. “We have suffered heavy losses from the pressure on the Suez Canal,” he said.  

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty urged his Iranian and Omani counterparts on July 25 to halt all escalatory action. He had told Bloomberg two days earlier that the US-Iran crisis was bridgeable.  

The attack may reduce Egypt’s LNG import and regasification flexibility rather than its export capacity, although the operational consequences remain unclear. The affected vessels were reported damaged and operations at Damietta disrupted, while the government said the port was operating normally.  

“It’s mainly symbolic,” Elai Rettig, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University who specializes in energy geopolitics, told The Media Line. “Egypt has barely exported any LNG through its two facilities in Idku and Damietta since 2024. It suffers gas shortages, especially during the summer months, and has become a net importer of LNG. So, there’s no effect for Europe.”  

Damietta last loaded a major export cargo of LNG in 2023. Egypt has been a net importer of liquefied natural gas since late 2024 and imported a record 8.92 million tons in 2025. The Energos Winter is one of four floating regasification units Egypt uses to meet summer demand.  

Israeli gas once reached international markets through Egypt’s liquefaction plants, which Iran could use to present the strike as aimed at Israel. Rettig called that “a rather weak claim since that hasn’t happened in the past two years, and currently Damietta is used more for LNG imports.”  

“So, Iran hasn’t damaged Israel at all,” he said. “It only damaged Egypt’s energy security.”  

On July 28, Eni and TotalEnergies approved the Cronos gas project off Cyprus, creating a future source of LNG exports for Damietta. Starting in 2028, Cypriot gas is expected to be processed in Egypt and liquefied at Damietta for shipment mainly to European markets, helping restore the terminal’s export role.  

Prof. Brenda Shaffer, an energy expert at the US Naval Postgraduate School, told The Media Line that Tehran will most likely pick its next targets “by opportunity, rather than a calculated choice,” and that “energy and gas facilities around the globe need to raise their security alert level.”  

Shaffer, who attributes the strike to Iran, reads it as an effort to raise global oil prices and exacerbate LNG shortages to pressure President Trump ahead of the US midterm elections. She said Egypt “demonstrated flawed defense of critical energy infrastructure,” and called the strike a wake-up call for Egyptian defense in general.  

An Abu Dhabi security source told The Media Line that the strike ended Egypt’s insulation from the war and reset the regional threat map, and that targeting now follows US-linked economic and energy assets “regardless of the host nation’s political posture.” The source said that “Staying out has been exposed as a political preference, not an operational reality.”  

In April, Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, praised Egypt and several other Arab states for supporting the UAE during Iranian attacks. Egypt condemned the attacks and reportedly deployed air-defense systems and military personnel to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait.   

The Damietta Port Authority said Thursday that the port was fully operational. “All terminals and berths are operating normally, with vessels continuing to arrive and depart, alongside ongoing loading, unloading and cargo-handling operations at the targeted operational rates,” the authority said. The port “continues to provide maritime and logistics services around the clock without interruption,” it said, and cargo handling was proceeding normally across all sectors “in accordance with approved operational plans.”