MBS Flies to Cairo for Backing as US Sinks Two Iranian Boats Over a Drone
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince took his search for allies to Egypt, meeting Cairo’s leadership a day after CENTCOM’s commander visited Jeddah — while American forces “forcefully responded” against two Iranian boats attempting to steal a US surveillance drone-ship, destroying both. The Houthis said Saudi strikes killed three in Yemen’s southwest; the UN’s refugee agency counted more than 100,000 displaced by the escalation.
The Cairo call is about the one army the region still has: Egypt’s million-man force and its Red Sea coastline make it the indispensable partner for any ground answer to the Houthi coast, and Riyadh arriving as supplicant — after Washington twice declined direct strikes — shows the kingdom assembling a coalition from second choices. Cairo’s incentives are real but conflicted: Suez revenue bleeds with every diverted ship, yet Egyptian soldiers dying in Yemen is a memory Nasser’s generation seared into the officer corps. The Saildrone skirmish, almost comic beside the week’s stakes, matters as pattern: Iranian forces still probing American assets daily, each probe answered kinetically, the escalation ladder climbed in small steps nobody counts until one misses. Watch what Cairo actually commits — communiqués or brigades.