Photo: Senior Airman Dominic Tyler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Egypt's parliament has authorised President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to send military support to Saudi Arabia to defend the kingdom against attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels, a decision that drew an immediate and furious response from the Houthis, who called it a declaration of war.
The House of Representatives voted on Monday with a two-thirds majority in favour of authorising Sisi "to take the necessary measures to support the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," according to a parliament statement carried by Agence France-Presse. Sisi had asked parliament last week to approve military support for Riyadh "if requested." The vote followed three rare secret meetings on the matter, and it had been postponed twice before it passed.
Defensive only, Cairo insists
Egyptian officials have stressed that any deployment would be defensive. Sisi has said the support would be to "defend Saudi territory, and does not include an attack on Yemen," adding: "We are talking about defending the land and borders of the kingdom," and that the top priority remains a diplomatic solution.
What form the support would take is still unclear. One member of parliament, Medhat Rekaby al-Mansourawy, told AFP that discussions of the potential operation were "surface-level without details," though lawmakers had received assurances it would be "defensive" in nature. Reports citing a regional official say Egypt will deploy air defense systems and aircraft but no ground troops, though Cairo has not publicly confirmed any deployment plan.
The Social Democratic Party, which holds 11 seats, abstained from the vote after requesting "specific objectives, clear information" on the mission's scope and duration, and "an accurate assessment of the potential risks to the lives of our soldiers."
Why Egypt is stepping in now
Egypt has the Arab world's largest military, with hundreds of thousands of active personnel, fighter jets and complex air defense systems sourced from countries including the United States, China, France and Russia. Until now, however, Cairo has condemned Iranian and Iranian-backed attacks on Gulf countries without publicly engaging in direct combat, and it has not joined the mutual defense pact signed in Mecca in August by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey, under which an attack on one country is treated as an attack on all.
The timing reflects the sharp escalation of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia since early October. On Tuesday alone, Saudi air defenses intercepted ballistic missiles fired toward Riyadh, the second wave of attacks on the kingdom that day, and the Houthis claimed a strike on the Ras Tanura refinery. The attacks also threaten the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the gateway to Egypt's Suez Canal, giving Cairo a direct economic stake in the kingdom's defense.
The Houthi response: "a declaration of war"
On Tuesday, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the Houthis' political bureau, said in a Telegram post that Egypt's parliamentary decision was a declaration of war against Yemen.
"It is truly remarkable that while these people go to discuss what they call 'peace in the region', Egypt and its parliament declare support for the so-called defence of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and in doing so, declare war against the Republic of Yemen," he wrote. His statement came in reaction to a visit to Tehran on Monday by Saudi Arabia's defense minister, alongside Pakistan's army chief and Turkey's intelligence chief, in a bid to de-escalate tensions in the wider Middle East war.
Al-Houthi also dismissed the Saudi-Pakistani-Turkish defense pact as "a clear and blatant act of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran," and said the group was "not afraid of any alliance that may be formed."
What to watch next
The immediate questions are whether Riyadh formally requests Egyptian forces, what Cairo actually sends, and whether the Houthis make good on the implied threat to treat Egypt as a party to the conflict. For now, the vote itself is the signal: the Arab world's largest army has parliamentary permission to defend Saudi soil, and the group firing the missiles has answered by declaring that permission an act of war.
Sources: Agence France-Presse via Malay Mail and Channel NewsAsia (parliament vote, Sisi request, MP comments, abstention); Channel NewsAsia and Free Malaysia Today (Houthi "declaration of war" statement); Aaj English TV (pact context, Bab el-Mandeb). The reported air defense and aircraft deployment, with no ground troops, is attributed to reports citing a regional official and has not been publicly confirmed by Cairo.