CAIRO (Dispatches) -- Egypt’s parliament on Sunday rubber-stamped a presidential mandate authorizing military support for Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen, formally dragging Cairo into the aggression and branding the decision as a defense of Persian Gulf security.
The National Defense Council, chaired by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, approved “all forms of necessary support” for Riyadh on Sunday morning, hours before lawmakers convened an emergency session expected to endorse the measure. 
Sisi had demanded the mandate on Saturday, telling a military graduation ceremony that Egypt would “not attack anyone” but would not stand idle if Saudi Arabia were harmed.
The move marks a stunning reversal for a country that has marketed itself as a regional mediator. Egypt now stands openly alongside Saudi Arabia’s devastating campaign against Yemen, a war that has killed hundreds of thousands and pushed the poorest country in the Arab world to the brink of famine.
Sunday’s decision effectively converts Egypt from cautious bystander into willing accomplice.
The timing is damning. Yemeni forces have escalated missile and drone strikes on Saudi airports and oil infrastructure in recent weeks, including an attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300. 
Yemen’s parliament responded on Saturday with a direct warning to Cairo, urging Egypt not to be “dragged into a battle that does not resemble its values” and cautioning that involvement would pose a “grave danger” to Egyptian national security.
For Sisi, the calculus is crude and transactional. Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf allies have pumped billions of dollars in aid, central bank deposits, and investments into Egypt since 2013. 
Cairo joined the Saudi-led occupation in 2015, though its role was confined to Red Sea naval patrols. But Egypt’s economy is buckling, and its military is stretched thin. Suez Canal revenues have collapsed by roughly $11 billion since 2023 amid Red Sea disruptions—a direct hit to Cairo’s foreign currency lifeline.
Analysts warn that any Egyptian military role could quickly morph from defensive interception to direct confrontation with Yemeni forces, who have threatened all countries intervening on Riyadh’s behalf. 
Egypt’s last major intervention in Yemen—under Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1960s—became a quagmire that drained its military before the 1967 war.
Sunday’s developments mark a grim milestone. With parliament handing Sisi a blank check, Egypt is now formally complicit in Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen—at a moment when the conflict is widening, not winding down.