CAIRO, Oct. 27 — Egypt’s parliament has granted President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi constitutional approval to deploy armed forces and military assets to Saudi Arabia, clearing the legal pathway to defend Riyadh’s borders and critical economic infrastructure against intensifying missile and drone assaults launched by Yemen’s Houthi movement.
The decisive mandate was confirmed during a parliamentary session in the House of Representatives chaired by Speaker Hesham Badawy. The legislative endorsement empowers the Egyptian head of state—who serves as supreme commander of the armed forces—to dispatch military assistance if formally requested by Riyadh to safeguard Saudi national security.
The move follows weeks of repeated cross-border drone and missile strikes targeting Riyadh’s international airport and strategic Saudi Aramco energy hubs, incidents that have disrupted civil aviation and posed severe risks to commercial petroleum supply routes.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, former Egyptian assistant foreign minister Hussein Haridy characterized the parliamentary decision as strictly protective rather than offensive.
“This is fundamentally a defensive umbrella intended to support a sister nation facing external threats against its sovereign territory and vital economic installations,” Haridy noted, stressing that the deployment does not aim to launch operations inside Yemen or target specific regional factions offensively.
President el-Sisi has explicitly affirmed that any prospective military engagement will be confined strictly to shielding Saudi Arabian borders and assets, ruling out cross-border ground incursions into Yemeni territory. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty similarly underscored Cairo’s sustained diplomatic commitment, reiterating that a negotiated political settlement remains the indispensable pathway to resolving regional strife.
Under the Egyptian Constitution, deploying armed forces on combat missions outside the nation’s borders requires a two-thirds majority in parliament. While Egypt contributed naval units to secure Red Sea maritime routes under a Saudi-led coalition in 2015, Cairo has refrained from conducting large-scale foreign ground interventions since the 1991 Gulf War.
The parliamentary vote coincided with high-level talks in Cairo between President el-Sisi and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. Commending Egypt’s de-escalation efforts, Guterres cautioned via social media platform X that unchecked regional hostilities risk spiraling beyond international diplomatic control.