A Gulf periodical this week quoted an informed official source saying Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir will soon visit Egypt, leading to speculation that both Cairo and Riyadh are seeking to draw a line under recent tensions that have shaken bilateral ties. Though there has been no official announcement of a date for the visit Egyptian MPs Mustafa Bakri and Abdel-Rehim Ali told reporters Al-Jubeir would be in Cairo this week. “Egyptian and Saudi diplomats have already exchanged visits to prepare the ground for Al-Jubeir's arrival,” said Bakri. Ali expects the Saudi official's trip to smooth over any differences ahead of the Arab summit scheduled later this month in the Jordanian capital Amman. The last few weeks, he says, have seen intensive efforts from Cairo and Riyadh to end outstanding disagreements on a range of issues, from resolving the Syrian crisis to the status of the two Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir. Al-Jubeir is expected to meet with Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri and will convey a message from Saudi King Salman to President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. Expectations the visit was imminent rose after Al-Jubeir's surprise trip to Iraq late last month after years of tension between the two countries. During the visit a new Saudi ambassador to Iraq was named. Al-Juebir's trip to Iraq and possible arrival in Egypt are being interpreted as an attempt to coordinate positions ahead of the Arab summit. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are influential regional players and stable relations between the two are essential to wider regional stability. A strong supporter of Egypt's post-Muslim Brotherhood regime, Riyadh provided billions of dollars in loans, grants, oil products and cash deposits to Egypt before relations soured. The Saudi decision that Egypt be the guest of the Gulf country's Al-Janadriyah's National Festival for Heritage and Culture last month is among recent encouraging signs tensions are easing. On 15 February Al-Sisi met with the Saudi Speaker of the Arab Parliament Meshaal bin Fahd Al-Salami. Egypt's vote in a UN Security Council session last October in support of a Russian draft resolution on Syria was one cause of the growth in tensions. The draft resolution urged Syrian parties to halt offensive operations. Riyadh, which has long demanded the removal of the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, opposed the resolution and denounced Cairo's position as being at odds with the Arab stand. Abdallah Al-Mouallami, Saudi Arabia's representative to the United Nations, openly attacked Cairo. “It was painful that the stances taken by Senegal and Malaysia were much closer to the agreed Arab position than the stance of an Arab delegate — Egypt,” he said. “Our vote was based on the contents of the resolution rather than abiding by the kind of political bidding that has become a hindrance to the Security Council's work,” Egypt Ambassador to the UN Amr Abul-Atta said in a statement issued at the time by the Foreign Ministry. He added that Egypt could not oppose a draft resolution that called for a ceasefire and the possibility of humanitarian aid being delivered to Syrians. Following the vote Saudi state oil company Aramco informed the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) it would halt for a month the supply of petroleum products agreed between Egypt and Saudi Arabia as part of a five-year deal. Aramco gave no reason for the suspension of supplies and a month later informed Cairo that it had suspended oil shipments to Egypt until further notice. Again, no reasons were given. Aramco signed a contract with EGPC to supply 700,000 tons of petroleum products every month for five years during Saudi King Salman bin Abdel-Aziz's visit to Cairo in April last year. The deal included 400,000 tons of diesel, 200,000 tons of benzene and 100,000 tons of Mazot per month, paid for by EGPC over a 15-year period at two per cent interest. Differences over ways to resolve the crisis in Syria and handle the situation in Yemen further fuelled tensions. Cairo is pushing for a political solution to the Syrian crisis that maintains the unity of Syrian territories and respects the will of the Syrian people while Riyadh insists there can be no resolution in Syria without the removal of Al-Assad. In YemenEgypt rejects any participation of Egyptian forces on the ground as part of the Saudi-led coalition intervening in Riyadh's southern neighbour. Egypt's commitment has so far been limited to naval deployment to protect Red Sea shipping lanes. Riyadh is also unhappy with the channels of communication Cairo maintains with Tehran in the absence of diplomatic relations. But perhaps the most significant bone of contention is the status of the two Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir. The Egyptian government agreed to transfer sovereignty of the two islands to Saudi Arabia as part of the joint Egyptian-Saudi maritime border demarcation agreement, provoking widespread public opposition, only to have the decision overturned by an Egyptian court which ruled the two islands part of Egypt's territory.
