CAIRO — Egypt’s parliament has put off until October 26 its vote on whether the army may be sent to defend Saudi Arabia, even though the MP Mostafa Bakry says no lawmaker has rejected the request.
Speaker Hisham Badawi adjourned the second emergency session on Monday, with discussion due to resume next Monday, state media reported. The vote had already slipped once, from Sunday to Tuesday, and a parliamentary source told The National that a decision could still come sooner. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi had asked on Saturday for authority to act in Saudi Arabia’s defence, if Riyadh asks.
The delay matters because the request needs more than a simple majority. The constitution requires approval by two-thirds of the 596-member House, or 398 votes, before troops can be sent on a combat mission abroad. Even approval would not send a soldier anywhere: Egypt would act only if Saudi Arabia formally asks, and The National reported that no request has been announced.
The hesitation is not only procedural. About 300 MPs asked to speak in closed sessions, local media said, and some pressed for details of the mission’s scope. Three said they would abstain, The National reported. The Egyptian Social Democratic Party told its bloc to do the same, calling its solidarity with Riyadh “firm” but asking for “specific objectives, clear information” on scope and duration, Arab News reported.
The arithmetic still favours approval. Four main pro-government parties won 403 of 568 elected seats last year, The National noted, and the Salafist Nour Party also backed the request. Separately, Egypt’s highest seat of Sunni learning wants an Al-Azhar mediation committee of Arab and Islamic states formed urgently.
Money sits in the background. Central bank data show a $5.3 billion Saudi deposit, part of $10.3 billion Riyadh holds at Egypt’s central bank, matures this month, and Cairo faces a potentially costly repayment unless Riyadh agrees to roll it over, The National reported. No account links the deposit to the timing of the vote.
Sanaa has already replied. Yahya Al Raei, speaker of the Houthi-run parliament, which is not internationally recognised, warned Cairo that such a path “would pose a grave danger to its national security,” The National reported on Sunday. The Houthi attacks behind the request include the Riyadh airport attack of October 10, which killed and injured hundreds.
Egypt is not yet part of the Mecca Pact, the defence agreement Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed in August, though Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has called joining “under serious consideration,” The National reported.
What no account says is whether Riyadh has asked for a single Egyptian soldier, or what that soldier would be ordered to do on arrival.
