Saleh says Eritrea rejected foreign-controlled port hub

Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh said Asmara had rejected a role for DP World and would not accept any foreign power operating a strategic hub in Eritrea, while questioning the wider purpose of the United Arab Emirates' expanding port interests across Africa.

Saleh made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Middle East Eye in Asmara, published on 10 September. He said African governments should examine why the UAE has accumulated port facilities across the region rather than assume the activity is purely commercial. “Is it just for economics? No,” he said.

On Eritrea's own position, Saleh said the government had not wanted DP World in the country. “We do not want any foreign power to have a ‘hub’ in Eritrea,” he added. The distinction is significant for a Red Sea state whose ports at Massawa and Assab are central to its economic development and sovereign control of its coastline.

Saleh connected the port question to a wider regional alignment. He said the UAE and Israel had converged in Somaliland and that Asmara saw both countries drawing closer around Ethiopia. He described Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's approach as a “two-waters strategy” linking the Nile and the Red Sea.

The foreign minister also questioned Israel's interest in a military presence in Somaliland. On Eritrea's bilateral position, he said Asmara had decided that it did not want an Israeli embassy or relations, while stressing that Eritrea was not hostile to Israel.

Taken together, the remarks present an Eritrean policy line that separates investment from foreign strategic control. The central point is not opposition to port development, but Asmara's insistence that development must not turn Eritrean territory into a hub for another power.