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And if Greece went, the United States feared that Turkey could be next, giving Moscow control of the Eastern Mediterranean including, potentially, the Suez Canal, a vital global trade route.

Seemingly by accident, Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was also invited to the chat, which discussed planned strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen aimed at unblocking trade routes on the Suez Canal.

The vice-president said targeting Houthi forces that are attacking vessels in the Suez Canal serves European interests more than the US, because Europe has more trade running through the canal.

And West Coast ports have benefited from a drought in the Panama Canal and security concerns in the Red Sea leading up to the Suez Canal.

Traffic in the Suez Canal has fallen by roughly half.