While Cairo faces a financial crisis, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah. Saudi state-run SPA claimed that the two presidents discussed regional developments and cooperation on Monday. El-Sisi landed in Saudi Arabia Sunday. It also said Saudi national security advisor Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban and Egyptian intelligence head Abbas Kamel attended the meeting. Saudi Arabia has helped Cairo’s economy after el-Sisi overthrew democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
As Egypt’s financial problems were revealed and aggravated by last year’s Ukrainian incursion, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations made deposits in its central bank and offered large new investments. El-visit Sisi’s follows Riyadh’s announcement that it will no longer give unconditional financial assistance to its partners. The Saudi finance minister announced the change during the annual Davos summit in January. Mohammed al-Jadaan remarked, “We gave straight gifts and deposits without strings.” “That’s changing. We collaborate with global institutions to say, “We need reforms.”
Minor fight
After Davos, two prominent Saudi pundits sympathetic to the monarchy publicly criticized Egypt’s “failure” since its 1952 revolution and the military’s economic dominance. In reaction, Abdel Razek Tawfiq, editor-in-chief of Egyptian state-owned daily Al Gomhuria, declared that “barefooted” and newly rich countries had no right to attack Egypt. “The mean, the scoundrels and the nouveau-riche have no right to offend their masters,” he said, using pejorative caricatures and historical superiority. “We should not forget the assistance our brothers have given us,” el-Sisi said as Saudi and Egyptian officials quickly resolved the dispute.
Saudi commentators then deleted unfavorable remarks. Egypt’s dependence on wealthy Gulf nations increased when it received a $3bn IMF loan in December. The loan requires economic reforms and Gulf finance and debt rollovers. A regional diplomatic realignment precedes the Jeddah summit. Saudi Arabia and Iran restored relations in March after a China-brokered pact. After the settlement, Saudi state media claimed in March that Saudi Arabia and Syria were discussing the reinstatement of consular services.
The reestablishment of links between Riyadh and Damascus would be the most important step yet in Arab governments’ attempts to normalize relations with al-Assad, who was ostracized by many Western and Arab counties after his security forces’ use of brutality on demonstrators sparked a civil war in 2011. After years of hostility aggravated by the gruesome murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul by Saudi operatives, Saudi Arabia is also trying to re-engage with Turkey. Saudi Arabia agreed to deposit $5bn in the Turkish central bank two months before national elections in March.
