Playing all sides in the Middle East, 80-year-old King Salman gave his firm backing to 62-year-old Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. El-Sisi took the bold step as Egypt’s Defense Minister toppling duly elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi July 3, 2013, plunging Egypt into a guerrilla war with the Muslim Brotherhood. Losing untold billions in tourism due to terrorism spreading beyond the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt’s mainland, King Salman hoped to boost Eygpt’s flagging economy. Promising billions in Saudi investment, including building a bridge over the Red Sea between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, King Salman gave 100% backing to el-Sisi’s brutal, but necessary, crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood and other terrorist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS]. Since taking office June 8, 2014, el-Sisi’s battled Muslim Brotherhood terrorists.
Watching the Sinai Peninsula overrun with Islamic terrorists, el-Sisi has a lot on his plate rooting out what’s left of the Muslim Brotherhood. While the U.S.-educated Morsi sits in prison, the Muslim Brotherhood continues it guerrilla war against el-Sisi’s Cairo government. “The other mission that we should work on together is the fight against extremism and the fight against terrorism,” King Salman told the Egyptian parliament. Salman’s been under increased scrutiny for funding various rebel groups seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. While the impact of the five-year-long Syrian war hasn’t been felt in Cairo, King Salman’s continued backing of Syian opposition groups has led to the biggest humanitarian disaster and refugee crisis since the end of WWII. King Salman vows to fight “terrorists” but backs rebel group trying to topple al-Assad.
Embroiled in a war against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, King Salman asked for el-Sisi’s military support. Salman cleverly pitted Egypt against Iran, currently supporting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. El-Sisi backs King Salman’s military efforts to reinforce Yemen’s government of Abd Rabbuh Masur Hadi currently at war with Houthi rebels annexing Yemen’s territory around the Port of Aden. El-Sisi agreed that Egyptian-controlled islands in the Red Sea are actually part of Saudi Arabia, admitting Egypt leased the islands from the Saudis in the 1950s. While asked to support Salman’s efforts in Yemen, el-Sisi wasn’t likely, given ongoing counter-terrorism operations, to commit Egyptian troops in Yemen. “The two countries realize that common interests outweigh their practical differences,” said Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle East politics at the London School of Economics.
Salman’s visit to Cairo wins el-Sisi’s commitment against Shiite Tehran, seen by Sunni governments as meddling in the Middle East. When it comes to Syria, President Barack Obama has rubber stamped King Salman’s proxy war against al-Assad, killing 250,000, displacing millions more to neighboring counties and Europe. “The Egyptians are basically going to convince the Saudis that they are in the same trench when in comes to the Saudi’s existential fight with Iran, and Saudi Arabia too seems to be very committed to Egyptian national security and the Sisi administration,” said Gerges. Apart from fighting Iranian interests in defending al-Assad, it’s difficult to see Saudi’s “existential” struggle with Iran. Iran has the same interest in Syria as Russian President Vladimir Putin, defending al-Assad’s Shiite regime. Saudis back Syrian opposition groups seeking to topple al-Assad.
Since el-Sisi took over Egypt June 8, 2014, he’s taken a tough stance on Gaza’s Rafah border crossing. Once a smuggling artery for Hamas in Gaza, el-Sisi has closed the crossing, flooded illicit smuggling tunnels and turned his attention to fighting Hamas militants, believed an offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi’s support of el-Sisi since toppling Morsi July 3, 2013 has been ironclad. King Salman sees the Muslim Brotherhood as closely tied to al-Qadea in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP] and ISIS, both aiming to topple Riyadh’s government. With tourism down for the foreseeable future, el-Sisis needs Saudi Arabia’s investment in Egypt’s economy. Not unlike U.S. politicians, el-Sisi also looks to Saudi’s cheap petrodollars to prop up the battered Egyptian economy. El-Sisi needs all the help he can get battling terrorists and consolidating his power in Cairo.
El-Sisi smartly aligned himself with King Salman’s political ambitions in the region. “Although Saudi Arabia’s support is important to confront Egypt’s economic crisis, what Egypt needs is more political stability and security to attract tourism and foreign direct investment,” said Ibrahim El-Ghitany, a researcher at Cairo-based Regional Centre for Strategic Studies. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have done little to help el-Sisi fight the Muslim Brotherhood. When the Saudi Arabia-backed Arab Spring went after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, the U.S. could have rushed to Mubarak’s aid to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood takeover. Like mistakes made in Iraq, Tunisia and Libya, the U.S. didn’t helpe stop the revolutions, preventing today’s terrorism. Battling the Muslim Brotherhood for the indefinite future, el-Sisi needs Saudi Arabia’s petrodollars more than ever.
