Egypt approves military support for Saudi Arabia after Houthi attacks escalate

Sisi had asked parliament to approve military support for Egypt's Gulf Arab ally and the world's biggest oil exporter if Riyadh requested help in fighting the Houthis, whose advances also threaten the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait — southern gateway to the Red Sea and Egypt's Suez Canal.

At least two-thirds of the chamber backed the measure, according to an official parliamentary statement.

Parliament voted in closed session without publishing the tally, and no formal Saudi request for Egyptian troops has been announced.

The statement did not specify what kind of support Egypt would provide. Taher al-Khouly, deputy head of parliament’s legislative committee, told Reuters that Egypt would send forces to Saudi Arabia in coordination between the two countries and at Saudi Arabia’s request.

Several opposition groups opposed or declined to back the move. The Civil Democratic Movement, a coalition of opposition parties, rejected Egyptian military involvement in a regional war and said last week that Cairo’s role should focus on mediation.

The Egyptian Social Democratic Party had said its lawmakers would abstain, citing a lack of information on the mission’s aims, duration and cost, while saying it remained supportive of Saudi Arabia.

Egypt has frequently condemned Iranian and Iranian-backed attacks on Gulf countries, but it has not publicly engaged in direct combat or joined the Mecca mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey,signed in August.

Ministers from the pact’s member countries held an emergency meeting in Riyadh earlier this month and agreed to ensure the “rapid deployment” of forces and military capabilities in Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan approved the agreement last week, whileTurkey's parliament began ratifying it last week.

Top officials from the three Mecca pact countries were meeting Iranian leaders in Tehran on Monday in a push to de-escalate the conflict.

Britain said last week it would deploy Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets on missions to help protect Saudi cities and critical infrastructure from Houthi aerial attacks.

SISI SPELLS OUT LIMITS OF EGYPTIAN SUPPORT FOR SAUDIS

The Cairo parliament had postponed the vote last week as Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and intelligence chief Hassan Rashad travelled to Riyadh to deliver a letter to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from Sisi, who said Egypt's support would be limited to defending Saudi territory and borders rather than attacking Yemen.

Abdelatty said afterwards that Cairo advocated exploring "every opportunity" to resolve the Yemen conflict diplomatically.

Essam Farid, the speaker of the Senate, said Egypt’s position was "purely defensive" and aimed at defending Saudi territory, borders, sovereignty and holy sites against external attack. He said that it would not extend to an attack on Yemen and that Egypt stands with its brothers as "a shield that protects, not a sword that attacks".

Egypt, the Arab world's most populous state with one of the region's largest militaries, joined the Saudi-led coalition in an earlier phase of Yemen's war, in March 2015.

At that time it acted mainly as a naval partner, sending warships to secure Red Sea shipping lanes. It also deployed around 800 ground troops but played only a limited combat role.

Egypt was involved in a costly military intervention in Yemen in the 1960s and has not undertaken a large-scale ​foreign ground deployment since the 1991 Gulf War.

Yahya Ali al-Rai, speaker of Yemen's Houthi-run House of Representatives, last week urged the Cairo parliament to reject the proposal, saying Egypt would be threatening its own national security and internal stability.

The Senate speaker told the chamber he had received a letter from Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr, head of Yemen’s Shura Council, which is aligned with the internationally recognised government, backing Egypt’s participation in defending Saudi Arabia. Bin Daghr said the position reflected the will of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, according to the speaker.

Saudi Arabia is a major political and financial partner of Cairo, providing billions of dollars in aid, deposits at the central bank and energy supplies under Sisi.

Fighting between the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's internationally recognised government and the Houthi militia, which controls the capital Sanaa, has escalated in recent weeks, becoming a volatile front in the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The Houthis have attacked Riyadh's international airport and the state oil company Saudi Aramco, disrupting flights and oil exports, while aid agencies have warned of worsening conditions in Yemen, already suffering one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The Saudi crown prince had sought military help from the US, but President Donald Trump did not agree to strikes on the Houthis, people familiar with the matter told Reuters in September. Washington told Riyadh that it would help with intelligence sharing and targeting, they added.

(Reporting by Menna Alaa Eldin, Momen Saeed Atallah, and Mohamed Ezz; Writing by Hatem Maher and Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Kevin Liffey)