Egyptian military personnel are in Saudi Arabia to protect the kingdom’s strategically important facilities from attacks by Yemen’s Houthis. This was stated by Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.
“We already have a military presence at the request of our brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia to show them assistance (in the fight against the Houthis), and we are strengthening it,” the minister said.
He stressed that the military presence is carried out exclusively for defensive purposes, including to protect the cities of Mecca and Medina, sacred to Muslims.
As the Emirati newspaper The National reports, this concerns sending several hundred military personnel to Saudi Arabia, as well as armoured equipment, air defence systems and surface-to-surface missiles. In particular, the weaponry includes the Egyptian Amoun air defence system, which is intended to intercept unmanned aerial vehicles and low-flying missiles.
This is the first official confirmation of the deployment of military personnel and weaponry by Cairo in the kingdom.
