Cairo, Oct 18. (dpa/GNA) – Egypt on Sunday, moved closer to offering military backing to Saudi Arabia, which is locked in an escalating feud with Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis, after a key Egyptian state council agreed to provide “all necessary and possible” support to the oil-rich monarchy.
The approval was given by Egypt’s National Defence Council, after a meeting headed by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi. The council “decided to provide all necessary and possible forms of support to Saudi Arabia, to defend its security and stability, safeguard its resources and territorial integrity, and protect the Islamic holy sites,” a presidential spokesman stated. No specific details were given.
On Saturday, al-Sissi said his country would take any action to defend Saudi Arabia, if Riyadh requested it, and asked the parliament to hold an emergency meeting to mandate such a move.
The parliament met on Sunday to debate the potential authorization, and will hold a second session Monday, the state-linked television al-Qahera News reported.
During Sunday’s closed-door meeting, a large number of the 596-strong legislature, demanded further details about the potential deployment of forces to Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian privately owned al-Masry al-Youm reported, citing parliamentary sources. The Egyptian constitution requires the approval of two-thirds of the lawmakers to declare war, or to dispatch army forces outside the country.
Al-Sissi stressed that such a move would be purely defensive. “I am not speaking about going to war against anyone, or attacking anyone. We are talking about defence only,” he said on Saturday at a military graduation ceremony in Cairo.
GNA