The announcement at the beginning of the week in Egypt that it is considering a project to expand the Suez Canal so that it allows simultaneous two-way traffic along its entire 193 km length caused a public and media storm in the country.
The timing of the announcement seems quite unfortunate when the Suez Canal is at a low traffic and revenue level due to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and when Egypt's economic situation is quite precarious.
It is true that in recent days there have been some encouraging signs for the Egyptian economy, but the expansion of the canal is supposed to cost many billions, which Egypt does not have and probably will not have in the future.
The expansion of the canal will require the digging of at least another 80 km. The canal expansion project in part of the southern section, which was carried out in 2015 and is considered the flagship project of President al-Sisi's regime, has not justified the investment from an economic point of view.
Opponents of the new proposed project claim that if it is implemented it will harm Egyptian national security since it will essentially "isolate" Sinai.
One of the experts pointed out that if Egypt had to move troops to Sinai to protect the peninsula, the expanded canal would be a difficult obstacle...