In this context, the sources cited by Al-Arabi al Jadeed pointed that “the mediation requested by the Egyptian side aims to halt the tensions and war of words between both sides in the light of the economic crisis that hits Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s regime.”It also pointed that “The current economic struggle and public dissent escalating in the country have pushed the Egyptian regime to seek the mediation of Gulf parties to swiftly end the dispute between Cairo and the Kingdom and resume the supply of oil products to Cairo that costs the country $1 billion if it purchased it from the market away from its agreement with the Saudi Aramco company.”
The sources continued,”This would cause a huge deficit in the foreign currency reserves which will have negative repercussions especially under Egypt’s rising need for every single dollar in its monetary reserves to start securing the $12 billion loan deal from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on three tranches.”
The sources said,” Cairo offered to stop all the forms of political and media escalation against Riyadh and reach a formula that is convergent with the Saudi stance in some files on the political arena, as well as halting meetings with Iranian figures, which was one of the reasons that triggered the Saudi outrage toward the Egyptian regime.
In return, Saudi Arabia should end its suspension of oil products supply to Cairo and resume delivery of the required quantities for this month.”
It is noteworthy that the Egyptian-Saudi tension has reached its peak in the light of the war of words launched by the Egyptian media against the Saudi Kingdom which pushed Saudi activists to launch a hashtag apologizing to President Mohamed Morsi for the “Kingdom’s support for the military coup” in Egypt.
In this context, some economic official sources said that “Cairo is preparing to implement economic measures, which were described as “vigorous” to face the lack of funding and foreign currency shortages,” stressing that, “Cairo will declare a war economy period if the Gulf aid stopped.”
Tensions between Cairo and Riyadh have escalated as a result of Egypt’s divergent stances in sensitive issues to Riyadh.
Egypt has voted in favor of a Russian-backed draft resolution in the UN Security Council on Syria, which was opposed by SaudiArabia .
As a result, Egypt’s stance has angered Egypt’s major Gulf backer which condemned Egypt’s vote and described it with the ” painful” stance.
After the voting, the Saudi ambassador to the UN, Abduallah al-Mouallimi said, “It was painful that the Senegalese and Malaysian stance was closer to the Arab’s consensus than the Egyptian delegation.”
He also said that he feels pity for these countries that voted for the Russian resolution, stressing that his country will continue backing the Syrian people by all means.
Two days following the voting, Saudi state-owned oil company Aramco announced halting oil product supply to Egypt.
The sudden halt triggered a scornful media campaign against Saudi Arabia, as it was seen as a political decision. On the other side, Saudi journalists and media men criticized the Egyptian regime and blamed the Kingdom for its financial generosity with the al-Sisi regime.
