Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman flew to Cairo yesterday, where he was met by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as he stepped off the plane. The two met alone, and then together with their delegations. They both signed the document founding the “Saudi-Egyptian Supreme Coordination Council,” which the President and the Crown Prince are to head, along with an agreement to encourage and protect mutual investments between their two nations.
More than warm words on relations between the two countries were exchanged. Egypt’s semi-official daily Al-Ahram reported that “Egypt has inked deals with Saudi Arabia to inject $15 billion across various sectors, including renewable energy, industry, real estate development, tourism, and technology,” citing statements made by Bandar Al-Amiri, head of the Saudi-Egyptian Business Council, to Al-Arabiya TV today. Other Saudi private sector investments in Egypt are reportedly under discussion also. Such investments are crucial; the Egyptian government is otherwise left trying to govern with “the IMF’s knife to its neck.”
The regional crisis, with Gaza and Lebanon front and foremost, was high on their agenda also. The Egyptian Presidency reported (machine translation from Arabic) that “there was agreement on the seriousness of the regional situation and the need to stop the escalation. The two leaders stressed that establishing a sovereign Palestinian state, in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions, is the only way to achieve calm, peace and security in the region in a sustainable manner, noting that attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause would cause the conflict in the region to continue. In this context, the two leaders called for taking steps to calm the situation, including a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, addressing the worsening humanitarian situation, and stopping brinkmanship policies in order to stop the widening circle of conflict. The need to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty, security, stability and territorial integrity was also emphasized. The two leaders also discussed a number of regional issues, most notably the security of the Red Sea region, and the situations in Sudan, Libya and Syria.”
