Speaker of the Egyptian Parliament Ali Abdul Aal flew to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss bilateral relations. The visit came in response to an invitation from Head of the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Ibrahim Al-Sheikh to Abdul Aal. The speaker's trip aims to discuss means of enhancing relations between the two countries, especially at the parliamentary level, as well as exchanging views on issues of common concern. Abdul Aal was accompanied by a parliamentary delegation which is scheduled to hold a number of meetings with senior officials in Saudi Arabia. In October 2017, Abdul Aal and Al-Sheikh met on the sidelines of the 137th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which took place in Russia, and discussed ways to strengthen parliamentary relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi visited Saudi Arabia in April 2017 at the invitation of King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, which came to improve relations between Cairo and Riyadh after months of tensions between the two countries. Ties between Egypt and Saudi Arabia have suffered a phase of apathy. Observers of the region attributed the stressed ties to the countries' different views on the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, as well as the legal and judicial obstacles impeding the transfer of ownership of the Tiran and Sanafir islands to the kingdom.
