Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said on Saturday 17 October that Egypt would take steps to protect Saudi Arabia if Riyadh asks for help, and said he hoped parliament would hold an emergency session to authorise him to do so, Al Jazeera reports.
What Sisi Said
According to Al Jazeera, Sisi was speaking at a graduation ceremony at the Egyptian Military Academy. He said Egypt would “carry out any measure to protect” Saudi Arabia, acting on the directives of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and that this would apply only if the kingdom requests assistance. He stressed that the purpose was defence rather than aggression. The report says he added that the step requires parliamentary approval, and that he hoped lawmakers would convene an emergency session to grant it.
The report gives no direct Saudi official response to his remarks and records no other official reactions to them.
The Regional Background
Al Jazeera links the remarks to a series of attacks on Saudi Arabia that it attributes to Yemen’s Houthis, who are backed by Iran. It reports that attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport earlier this month killed 14 people and wounded more than 300, and that other airports, including Dammam, Abha, Jazan and Najran, were reportedly targeted. Yemen’s internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government has meanwhile launched a military campaign against the Houthis, the report says, while the Houthis have taken control of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and with it significant control over the Bab al-Mandeb strait.
According to the same report, Saudi Arabia signed a defence pact with Pakistan and Turkiye in August, and earlier this month the three countries agreed to activate “deterrence measures” under it. Riyadh has accused Iran of encouraging the Houthi attacks; Al Jazeera says Tehran rejects that accusation and has offered help in halting the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.
Al Jazeera also notes that Egypt has its own stake in Red Sea security. In a September meeting in Cairo, it says, Sisi backed Saudi calls for secure and unhindered navigation, and an Egyptian presidency statement described Saudi and Gulf security as part of Egypt’s national security. Analysts quoted by the outlet point to the Suez Canal’s dependence on maritime traffic.
Why It Matters
Sisi’s comments were conditional: the report mentions no Saudi request and no parliamentary vote, and describes no deployment. They nonetheless show how Red Sea and Gulf security is drawing in a wider circle of states, and how Egypt links its own economic and security interests to the kingdom’s. What happens next depends on whether Riyadh makes a request, how lawmakers in Cairo respond, and whether diplomatic efforts, including the offer Tehran says it has made, gain any traction.
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