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Egypt’s parliament on Sunday postponed a vote on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s request to authorize military support for Saudi Arabia, two lawmakers told AFP, with deliberations set to continue Monday.
The session was convened after Sisi asked lawmakers to approve help in defending Saudi Arabia if the kingdom requests it. Saudi Arabia has come under near-daily attacks since early October from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis.
Lawmaker Ibrahim Kholeif said the session was extended so every member could speak and express their views, adding that parliamentarians were mostly in support of the move.
Another member, Maha Abdel Nasser, said proceedings would resume Monday so all lawmakers could be heard. Egyptian media reported that deliberations would run into Tuesday.
Both lawmakers said no details were being discussed about what form Egyptian military support could take.
On Saturday, Sisi asked parliament for authorization to help defend Saudi Arabia “if requested,” saying it was “inconceivable” for Cairo to stand by while the kingdom’s security and stability are threatened.
He also called for an end to the fighting and said Egypt was not seeking to “confront or attack anyone.” “We are speaking only about defence,” he said.
Egypt’s constitution requires approval from both parliament and the National Defence Council, which includes the heads of the country’s security apparatus, before troops can be sent on combat missions abroad.
Shortly before Sunday’s parliamentary session, the council, chaired by Sisi, approved providing Saudi Arabia with “all necessary and available forms of support” to help defend its security, territorial integrity and Islamic holy sites, the presidency said.
The decade-plus war between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognized government reignited in July.
The Houthis seized Yemen’s Red Sea coastline in September and have since launched attacks on Saudi Arabia, including on state oil giant Aramco and on Riyadh’s international airport, where 13 people were killed a week earlier.
In response to Sisi’s call, Houthi parliament speaker Yehia Ali al-Rai sent a letter of warning to his Egyptian counterpart.
“Egypt’s slide down this path would pose a grave danger to its own national security and internal stability before anyone else’s,” he wrote, according to the Houthis’ Saba news agency.
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Any military involvement would mark a departure from Egypt’s historically conservative foreign policy, which has prioritized protecting its own national security.
For years, Cairo has cast itself as a regional mediator with channels open across conflict lines, including to Hamas, Israel and Iran.
Throughout this year, as its Gulf allies have come under attack in the war between Iran and the United States, Egypt has repeatedly urged caution.
The Arab world’s largest military issued no response even when an unidentified drone struck its own Damietta port in July.
Experts say Egypt has also stayed out of the Mecca defense pact that Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan signed in August in order to preserve its strategic autonomy.
Even so, Saudi Arabia is one of Cairo’s strongest allies and has been a key financial backer of Sisi’s administration for more than a decade.
Egypt joined the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen in 2015, contributing naval and air forces and deploying warships to the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia are the countries hardest hit by disruptions in Bab al-Mandab, the southern gateway to the Suez Canal, a vital shipping route linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.
Egypt’s canal revenues have not recovered since Houthi attacks on shipping began in 2023.
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