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October 25th, 2015 
Awake Goy 
Fahwad Al-Khadoumi (nsnbc) : Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, on Sunday, arrived in the Egyptian capital Cairo to discuss regional issues with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. Relations, especially concerning regional security are complex.
Saudi FM Al-Jubeir in Paris, 2015 (nsnbc archives)
President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi received Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir at the Itihadeya Presidential Palace, report The Cairo Post and Youm7.
Al-Jubeir is also scheduled to meet with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry along with other high-ranking Egyptian officials to discuss both economic and political ties between the two countries.
The visit is Jubeir’s first to Cairo since he was appointed foreign minister by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz April 29, 2015 reports The Cairo Post.
Also on the agenda are consultations about the two countries coordination on pertinent regional issues, including the situation in Libya, Syria and Yemen.
Saudi Arabia is one of the main foreign investors in the Egyptian economy while Egypt’s New Suez Canal project and other large infrastructure projects have turned Egypt into an attractive investment partner. Economic aspects of bilateral relations are thus based on reciprocity, win-win, as new parley expresses it. Relations are far more complicated with regard to regional security and regional foreign policy.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia have common interests with regard to limiting Qatar’s, Turkey’s and the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in Libya, Egypt, and to some degree Syria. Both Saudi Arabia and Egypt share common objectives with regard to limiting Qatar’s and Iran’s influence over at least some factions within the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood associated Hamas. Factions within Hamas began supporting insurgents in Egypt’s North Sinai province after the ouster of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia also share common interests with regard to the situation in Yemen; although their respective interest is based on different reasons.
Bab Al-Mandeb Strait
Saudi Arabia, for its part, is primarily interested in containing the Iranian-backed (although Iran denies) Houthi militia. Saudi Arabia’s primary objective is to contain the influence of Iran in neighboring Yemen and to maintain Saudi Arabia’s “sphere of interest” in the country.
Egypt is primarily concerned about maritime safety in the strategically important Bab Al-Mandeb Strait and the prospect of Houthi militia’s potential threat to the narrow southern entrance to the Suez Canal.
President Al-Sisi has previously stressed that security in the Strait is of vital importance to Egypt’s national security and economy.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia’s relations are, however, stressed due to Saudi Arabia’s sponsorship of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Saudi Arabia constitutes part of the U.S.-led “coalition against ISIS (a.k.a. Daesh, ISIL and Islamic State).
Egypt, for its part, has begun sharing intelligence about Daesh and other regional terrorist organizations and mercenary brigades with Russia, after Russia began its air campaign against insurgents in Syria. Egypt has, at least indirectly, become part of the joint Iraqi, Iranian, Syrian, Russian intelligence center in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Another complicating factor is that Saudi Arabia’s position is that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has to step down and that Al-Assad cannot be part of a political solution. The Egyptian is largely identical with that of Moscow. That is that Al-Assad has to be part of a political solution and that it is up to the Syrian electorate to determine its government.
A final complicating factor is that Saudi Arabia, via its covert but well-documented support of Daesh poses a threat to Egypt’s national security, especially in Egypt’s North Sinai province where Egypt is combating the Daesh-linked Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis. That theater of conflict, and by implication Egyptian – Saudi Arabian relations are further complicated by the nature of Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis (ABM).
Prior to the ouster of Mohamed Morsi the ABM was a relatively obscure terrorist organization whose capacity was limited to small bomb attacks and assassinations of police and military officers. After the ouster of Mohamed Morsi, and prior to ABM’s declaration of allegiance to Daesh, ABM grew with support from elements within Hamas, with support of Qatar, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Finding an Egyptian – Saudi consensus with regard to Daesh and by implication ABM may pose a difficult challenge that could end in a lose-lose rather than a win-win situation.
F/AK – nsnbc 25.10.2015
Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2015/10/25/egypt-saudi-arabia-discuss-regional-issues-in-cairo/
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