The situation hasn’t changed much since Egypt was a monarchy during the era of King Fuad and then King Farouq and when it turned into a republic following a revolution and then became socialist. This was followed by the era of Anwar Al-Sadat and the Camp David Accord, and of Hosni Mubarak and Mohammad Mursi of the Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries have always considered Egypt a basic pillar in their strategic calculations.
When relations were once unstable for around five years in the 1960s, the entire region was disturbed. Relations, however, restored their historic path immediately after the 1967 War, as the region’s stability is based on Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
This explains the uproar stirred by the Egyptian opposition, particularly opposition figures who reside outside Egypt, and the parties allied with them prior to and during Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman’s visit to Egypt.
The opposition wanted to embarrass Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and the Egyptian government because it knew it could not prevent the visit, which turned out to be the most important one since King Faisal’s meeting with Gamal Abdel Nasser. That visit, in 1969, corrected and solidified the relations, which we see today. The opposition exaggerated its narratives about Saudi-Egyptian disputes regarding the region and resorted to these exaggerations to create doubts about the success of the visit.
The surprise, however, is that the agreements signed between the two countries were more significant than what we had expected. The agreements are unprecedented and they came as a surprise even to those who know how close the ties are between King Salman and President El-Sisi.
Most of the agreements are related to strategic projects of which the most important is building a bridge that links the two countries and the two continents, Asia and Africa, together. This bridge is no less significant than the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, the Turkish Bosphorus Bridge, which links Asia and Europe. After this bridge over the Red Sea is built, it will become the first geographic passage between Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The agreements also included power-related projects. There are 15 other agreements, which will enhance the relation between the two shores of the Red Sea. The Egyptian opposition and the rivals of Gulf countries, particularly of Saudi Arabia, have a shortsighted vision that aims to sabotage relations to serve their immediate interests. However, for Cairo and Riyadh, the relations between the two countries have been of strategic importance since 1936.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia do not allow disturbing the balance of these relations due to disagreements over minor bilateral stances or different points of view regarding regional developments or journalistic articles.
Wise politicians differentiate between what’s strategic and what’s minor, between higher aims and tactical initiatives, between disagreements and differences and when it comes to their calculations, they leave space to act and be diverse and to even disagree.
The irony is that most of the frequent complaints by both the parties — Egypt and Gulf countries — are related to the weaknesses in implementing the cooperation already agreed upon. Therefore, both parties want greater cooperation but the work mechanism often confronts obstructions that are not political at all.
Gulf countries want to increase their investment and economic projects in Egypt and the Egyptians also want that. What ruins collective efforts whether on the level of the governmental or private sector is old bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is the worse enemy than all other lurking enemies.
If Gulf countries’ huge financial investments and international commercial partnership team up with Egyptian firms and enter the biggest market in the region, they can turn Egypt’s developmental problems into traits and transform the overpopulation into an example to the power of Egypt and the region and thus put Egypt among the ranks of tiger economies. The financial surplus and overpopulation require brave political decisions to overcome the slow pace.
The Egyptians, the Gulf citizens and all the Arabs want to overcome this crisis of chronic failure. Truth be told, the ambitious agreements which King Salman and President El-Sisi signed express the hopes of the region’s people — hopes that they have a future that’s better than our current situation.
People want governments to focus on building, developing and meeting their needs and not to take political stances and repeat their statements. These promised projects represent the biggest program for work between two countries in the region.
All the Egyptian opposition wants is to thwart any cooperation to prove that the government has failed and thus corner it although most of the affairs discussed during King Salman’s visit were related to development plans that concern the present and the future of 100 million Egyptian and Saudi citizens. They aim to enhance their lives and their children’s future away from political tampering.
Egypt is a country with huge capabilities and it deserves everyone’s attention because the region stands strong when Egypt is solid. The US is encouraged by Iran’s openness and considers the latter a promising state although when comparing it to Egypt, it’s a very underdeveloped system. In response to the international project to make Iran succeed, we must bet on Egypt. This is what the Saudis, Emiratis and the rest who believe in developmental projects and not just military ones are doing.
