Why is Egypt so wary of getting involved in Yemen’s conflict?
As Egypt considers defending Saudi Arabia against Houthi attacks, memories of its war in Yemen in the 1960s loom large.
Egyptian forces arrived in Yemen in the thousands, backing the country’s government in a civil war against rebels that threatened to overthrow it.
But this is not today’s war – this is 1962, and the Egyptians were supporting republican forces in North Yemen against the country’s royalists. The intervention came after Yemenis who were friendlier to the Arab nationalist ideology propagated by Egypt under President Gamal Abdel Nasser led a revolution that overthrew Zaidi Imam Mohammad al-Badr – a theocratic monarch.
Although the republican side was ultimately successful in the war against the Saudi-backed royalists, Egyptian forces withdrew in the wake of their defeat in the 1967 war against Israel, and after also suffering heavy losses in Yemen.
Fewer ships passing through the Red Sea means fewer fees paid to the Egyptian government for their passage through the Suez Canal. El-Sisi has said Egypt has already lost $20bn in potential revenues over the last few years due to regional instability, including previous attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the turmoil in the Strait of Hormuz caused by the US-Israel war on Iran.