Egypt, Saudi Arabia seek united front against militants

RIYADH — The leaders of the Arab world’s most populous state and its richest state met on Sunday to talk over joint efforts to counter Islamist militancy across the Middle East, including the turmoil now shaking Iraq.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s spokesperson, Ehab Badawi, said Sisi and Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz agreed to work together promote the “true and moderate values of Islam that reject extremism and terrorism”.

“President Sisi and King Abdullah also reviewed the development of the situation in Iraq in light of the expanding of the circle of terrorism in the region,” Badawi said, according to Egypt’s Middle East news agency.

“There is no doubt that the meeting between the leadership of the two countries is important in light of the current circumstance of the Arab and Muslim nation,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said, according to state news agency SPA.

“[There are] external wars, intervention from foreign powers, internal sedition and disputes within the Arab nation at a time when it is in utmost need for solidarity and to stand together as one man to repel enemies,” he said.

The visit is Sisi’s first since his election as president this year. The pair met on King Abdullah’s plane in Cairo in June, and Riyadh regards the former Egyptian army leader as one of its closest regional allies.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have provided some $20 billion in aid after Sisi ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year following mass protests against his one year in office.

King Abdullah has also called for a donor conference for Egypt expected to take place either this year or early next year to provide further support to the most populous country in the Arab world.

Egypt has suffered a string of attacks by Islamist militants.

US-allied Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is also worried by the advance of the Islamic State, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, militant group in Iraq, while at the same time it is unhappy with the policies of the Shiite-led government of Nouri Al Maliki, seeing it as being too close to regional rival Iran.

Few details emerged from the late-night meeting at King Abdullah’s palace in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. State media from both countries said the talks included Egyptian efforts to broker a ceasefire in a monthlong fighting between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.