Sisi Stresses the Defensive Nature of Support for Riyadh

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stressed on Wednesday that the military support offered to his Saudi ally against Yemen's pro-Iranian Houthis was strictly defensive, saying no attack on Yemen was planned.

“The aim is to defend the kingdom's territory and borders, as well as those of any other Arab state, if Egypt is asked to do so,” the president said in a speech, as Tehran issued a warning to Cairo.

Any military involvement would mark a break with Egypt's cautious diplomacy, which in recent years has prioritized safeguarding its own national security.

But Riyadh, which has also received pledges of defensive support from France and the United Kingdom, has long been a key ally of Cairo.

Egypt has also faced falling revenue from the Suez Canal since the first Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea in 2023, launched in connection with the war in the Gaza Strip.

A Houthi takeover of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which controls the southern entrance to the Red Sea, could deepen those losses, as the fighters have threatened to blockade the fleet of the kingdom, the world's largest crude oil exporter.

Although Egypt joined the Riyadh-led coalition against the Houthis in 2015, at the height of the hostilities, it did not join the Mecca defense pact signed in August by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan.

Egypt's accession to that pact would be difficult, particularly after the Libyan parliament ratified a maritime boundary agreement between Libya and Turkey in the Mediterranean, through which Ankara seeks to extend its rights over vast maritime areas.

Indeed, Egypt and Israel both rejected the agreement on Wednesday. According to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, it “constitutes a flagrant violation of Egypt's sovereign rights within its exclusive economic zone and on its continental shelf.”

According to Cairo, the agreement, signed nearly seven years ago but not ratified by the Libyan parliament until now, violates the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and is therefore “null and void and without any legal effect.”

The European Union said on Tuesday that it “deeply regretted” the ratification of the agreement, which “infringes upon the sovereign rights of third states,” and reaffirmed its solidarity with Greece, which rejected the Libyan parliament's vote, and with Cyprus.

Israel, which has close ties with both Athens and Nicosia and whose relations with Turkey have been extremely strained since the start of the Gaza war in 2023, “strongly” condemned the Libyan parliament's vote.

When it was signed in November 2019, the agreement had already been deemed illegal by Athens and Nicosia and condemned by the European Union.

Libya has been plagued by divisions since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with two rival administrations vying for power: the UN-recognized government led by Abdulhamid Dbeibah in Tripoli, and another in the east, controlled by the powerful Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and his clan.

Turkey and Egypt are now close security partners and cooperate closely on many regional issues, although they long supported opposing sides in Libya.