CAIRO — Egypt’s president asked parliament on Saturday for the legal authority to act in Saudi Arabia’s defence, but only “if we are asked to do so,” and none of the reports TEH reviewed says Riyadh has made that request.
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi spoke at a graduation ceremony for military academy and college cadets, according to The National, and Egypt’s House of Representatives said it would meet on Sunday. Al Jazeera tied the speech to a barrage of Houthi attacks on the kingdom, among them the Riyadh airport attack TEH reported on October 11.
The president said the step needs parliamentary approval. “I am not speaking about attacking or waging war,” he said, in the English rendering The National published. “We are seeking only to defend.” Al Jazeera’s translation of the same remark reads differently, so the exact wording belongs to the translators, not to a settled text.
The National reported that Sisi said Egypt stood firmly behind efforts to protect the territory of its Gulf allies, and called it “absolutely unacceptable for us to allow the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be targeted or for its security and stability to be undermined.” Al Jazeera reported that after meeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Cairo last month, the Egyptian presidency said the security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states was “an integral part of Egypt’s national security.” Saturday’s request asks parliament to turn that line into legal authority.
The Egyptian presidency streamed the full graduation ceremony on its official YouTube channel.
Saudi Arabia already has a defence pact with Pakistan and Turkiye, which Al Jazeera calls the Mecca Alliance for Defence and TEH has covered as the Mecca Pact. The three agreed earlier this month, Al Jazeera said, to activate “deterrence measures” and rapidly deploy forces to the kingdom.
Analysts cited by Al Jazeera, none of them named in the passage, say Riyadh wants help protecting the kingdom and Red Sea shipping, and that Egypt, whose Suez Canal revenue depends on the same traffic, is an obvious partner. In August, TEH reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said Egypt could join the Mecca Pact.
The toll from the Riyadh airport attack is itself disputed. Saudi civil aviation authorities said 12 people died, as TEH reported at the time; Al Jazeera puts it at 14 and The National at 17, and neither says who counted.
Xinhua reported, citing state-run Nile TV, that the House will convene at 1 p.m. local time on Sunday. Whether Riyadh wants Egyptian forces, or only the promise of them, is the one thing no account TEH has read says.
