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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said Saturday that Cairo is ready to take any measure Saudi Arabia requests to defend the kingdom, and called on parliament to be ready to convene an emergency session to authorize such action, as he declared his presidency will end in 2030.
"We will take any measure to protect Saudi Arabia," Sisi said at a graduation ceremony at the Egyptian Military Academy in the New Administrative Capital.
"We stand firmly to protect and defend the territories of our brothers in the Gulf," he noted.
Sisi's pledge adds Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, to the states offering military backing to Riyadh as Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports and oil facilities escalate.
Sisi said Egypt would carry out any measure to protect and defend Saudi Arabia in line with the directives of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, adding that if parliamentary approval were required, it would not be delayed for a moment.
He said Egypt would not allow any harm to the security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. On Thursday, Sissi said the national security of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states is linked and that targeting the kingdom affects Arab and Egyptian national security, while rejecting any threat to Red Sea security.
Sisi thanked Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia, for supporting Egypt after 2013, saying gas and oil shipments arrived free of charge. "Were it not for them, I would not know what would have happened," he said, and asked the armed forces to give a military salute to the Gulf states.
"I said that the Egyptian constitution would not be touched," Sisi said. "This is an entirely settled matter and will not be discussed,” he added, referring to the end of his term in 2030.
"I will not leave the Egyptian state until it is brimming with its own people capable of shouldering responsibility," he said.
Sisi said the state has 43 months to arrange responsibilities and that a committee has been formed to train and select cadres for ministerial, parliamentary and institutional posts, adding that no "criminal, traitor or ill-intentioned" person would take responsibility in Egypt.
Sisi, 71, won re-election in December 2023. Constitutional amendments approved in a 2019 referendum extended presidential terms to six years and allowed him to remain in office until 2030.
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