Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s latest meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi this week came at a highly sensitive moment for both countries.
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meeting → come → countries
Mere days before Tuesday’s meeting, Iran-aligned Houthi rebels seized Yemen’s Red Sea coast, gaining significant control over the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the southern gateway to the Suez Canal.
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rebels → align → Canal
el-Sisi meets MBS, backs Saudi call for secure Red Sea navigation
- list 2 of 2‘They called us’: Has Trump abandoned Bab al-Mandeb to the Houthis?
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Trump → meet → Houthis
This precipitated a Saudi air campaign over Yemen and repeated attacks by the Houthis on the kingdom’s oil infrastructure.
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This → precipitate → infrastructure
Analysts say Riyadh is looking for help to protect the kingdom and Red Sea shipping, and that Egypt, whose Suez Canal revenue depends on the same traffic, is an obvious partner.
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revenue → say → traffic
The deepening bilateral relationship carries significant implications for the region, from the conflicts in Yemen and Sudan to Egypt’s close ties with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia’s new defence pact with Turkiye and Pakistan.
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relationship → deepen → Turkiye
Purpose of the visit
Abdel Monem Said, a member of Egypt’s Senate who is close to decision-making circles in Cairo, told Al Jazeera the visit had political, economic, strategic and military dimensions.
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visit → tell → dimensions
He said it came as Iran escalated regional conflicts through what he called its proxies, chief among them the Houthis.
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chief → say → them
Their advance directly threatened Egypt’s economy and the Suez Canal, he said.
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he → threaten → economy
Said stressed the need for joint strategic and military thinking between Egypt and Saudi Arabia that would act as a strong deterrent against Iran-backed groups from Iraq to Yemen.
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that → stress → Yemen
He added that Egypt is eager to prevent Iran and its allies from imposing control over the region, especially over maritime traffic in the Red Sea, given the direct repercussions this has for the Suez Canal.
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this → add → Canal
Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at King’s College London, said Cairo increasingly sees one continuous security space stretching from the Suez Canal to Bab al-Mandeb.
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Cairo → say → Mandeb
If that southern gateway becomes unreliable, he said, Egypt stands to lose shipping, hard currency and strategic leverage.
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Egypt → become → shipping
“I do think Cairo now has a very strong interest in substantive cooperation with Saudi Arabia on Red Sea security,” he told Al Jazeera over email.
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he → think → email
In the lead-up to the meeting, the chairman of the Arab Affairs Committee in Egypt’s House of Representatives, Mohamed Salah Abu Hemila, told Al Jazeera that the Saudi crown prince’s visit may produce a new roadmap for political and strategic cooperation on a number of Arab and regional issues.
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visit → tell → issues
The alliance between the two nations would serve as the cornerstone for building a new Arab order — more robust, cohesive, and capable of safeguarding its interests and defending its just causes, he said.
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he → serve → causes
The foremost issues would be Red Sea security and freedom of international navigation, but they would also include the Palestinian cause and the situations in Yemen, Libya and Sudan.
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they → include → Yemen
A statement released by el-Sisi’s office after the meeting also affirmed that “relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia can only be exemplary within the Arab framework,” and linked Egyptian and Gulf security.
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relations → release → security
Tarek Fahmy, professor of international relations at Cairo University, told Al Jazeera that Saudi Arabia is increasingly acting within an Arab framework after the United States’s reaction to the Houthi escalations fell short of what the kingdom expected.
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kingdom → tell → what
Reports suggest that Saudi Arabia asked the Trump administration for military help in combatting the Iran-backed group, but that Trump refused.
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Trump → suggest → group
Neither Saudi Arabia nor the US has officially commented on these reports.
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Arabia → comment → reports
No details of specific military cooperation between the two countries were announced during or after the meeting.
However, Egypt is already a party to a Saudi-led coalition for Red Sea maritime security launched in August.
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Egypt → announce → August
The grouping was created as a consequence of international fears that the Houthis could close Bab al-Mandeb while Iran had the Strait of Hormuz choked off.
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Strait → create → Hormuz
The coalition, whose founding document stresses it is purely defensive in nature, has not taken military action against the Houthis so far.
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it → stress → Houthis
The rebel group, too, has not taken measures to shut down shipping after its recent advances.
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group → take → advances
Krieg says Saudi-Egyptian military cooperation is likely to entail intelligence sharing, maritime surveillance, protection of commercial shipping and greater coordination around the Red Sea.
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cooperation → say → Sea
But there is a “very hard ceiling” on how far Egypt will involve itself inside Yemen, he said.
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he → be → Yemen
“The Egyptian preference will be to defend the maritime system without becoming responsible for Yemen.”
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preference → defend → Yemen
Historical memory likely plays a role in that preference.
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memory → play → preference
In the 1960s, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser sent tens of thousands of Egyptian soldiers to participate in the North Yemen Civil War, a long and costly endeavour that yielded few results and many casualties.
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that → send → results
“Yemen taught Egypt that an apparently limited intervention can become a strategic trap very quickly,” Krieg said.
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Krieg → teach → Egypt
It’s no surprise that the two nations should seek to deepen cooperation at this moment, say analysts.
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analysts → ’ → moment
The Iran war is only the latest – and perhaps greatest – in a series of regional crises that the two states have found themselves roughly aligned on.
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themselves → find → that
In January, weeks before the war began, el-Sisi met Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in Cairo.
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Sisi → begin → Cairo
Afterwards, the Egyptian presidency said the two countries held “identical” views on solutions to regional crises that focus on preserving the unity and sovereignty of states.
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that → say → states
This was reiterated on Tuesday, when the two sides “stressed that any threat to Sudan’s unity and territorial integrity poses a danger to the collective security of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and all countries of the region”, according to Egypt’s State Information Service.
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threat → reiterate → Service
“Both are deeply uncomfortable with the fragmentation of states and the rise of militias, separatist movements and externally sponsored sub-state actors,” Krieg said.
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Krieg → sponsor → militias
“You can see that in Sudan, Libya, Somalia and increasingly Yemen.”
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You → see → Sudan
However, this strategic vision for the region has run contrary to Abu Dhabi’s preferences and policies.
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vision → run → preferences
That pre-war meeting between el-Sisi and Prince Faisal came only days after Saudi Arabia launched strikes on a United Arab Emirates-backed separatist group in Yemen, which was widely received as a repudiation of Abu Dhabi.
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which → come → Dhabi
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
