Reflections from news and commentary of the day
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments
Thursday, November 5, 2026
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
[Salon] Sisi’s phoney war - ArabDigest.org Guest Post
Sisi’s phoney war
Summary: Egyptian President Sisi’s precipitous rush to back Saudi Arabia in its war with Yemen’s Huthis has been met with stiff resistance from his military and security elites.
We thank our regular contributor Maged Mandour for today’s newsletter. Maged is a political analyst who also contributes to Middle East Eye and Open Democracy. He is a writer for Sada, the Carnegie Endowment online journal and the author of Egypt under El-Sisi (I.B.Tauris) which examines social and political developments since the coup of 2013. You will find his most recent Arab Digest podcast The encirclement of Sisi here.
In a speech on 17 October, President Sisi called for an urgent parliamentary session to authorise sending Egyptian troops to support Saudi Arabia in its ongoing war with the Huthis. The language used in the speech implied a large deployment, with Sisi stating his willingness to act according to the “directive of King Salman and the Crown Prince.” It took parliament a week to deliberate and approve the deployment, authorising Sisi to take all necessary measures, granting him a blank cheque to proceed as he wished. This strong gesture, however, seems to be only just that, with the deployment most likely remaining limited and defensive in nature. That is a fact not lost on the Saudis who are yet to issue any official comment on the Egyptian offer, a clear diplomatic cold shoulder. At play are a number of factors placing real limits on the ability of the regime to project power, even if Sisi wants to.
Perhaps the most surprising of these limits is elite dissent against the move, with reports appearing that claim the decision announced by Sisi triggered dissent within the National Security Council headed by the president, which approved the deployment on the 18 October. The dissent seems to have revolved around the nature of the deployment and its scope, as well as critiques of Sisi's choice of words i.e. “according to the directive of King Salman and the Crown Prince” which was considered demeaning to the Egyptian military. This dissent seems to have been effective, with the Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and intelligence chief, Major General Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, travelling to Riyadh to deliver a message that the role of Egyptian troops would be limited to protecting Saudi territory rather than attacking Yemen, thus greatly diminishing the utility to the Saudis of the troop deployment. Dissent was also reflected in the delay in the parliamentary approval to send troops, which took a week of deliberation, an eternity for Sisi's rubber-stamp parliament. Whether this is an indication of genuine dissent or a delaying tactic to buy some time for the military elites to agree to the troop deployment remains unclear but it is an obvious sign of tension within the regime around the issue. It is worth noting that this is not the first time the president has faced dissent. For example, as the Israeli genocide in Gaza intensified Sisi was inclined to accept the mass exodus of the Palestinians, a prospect that was vetoed by the military on national security grounds, showing the real limit the elites can choose to place on his power.
On 29 July a drone attack caused a fire aboard two vessels off the Mediterranean port of Damietta, the first such attack on Egyptian territory since the Iran war erupted in late February. Ansar Allah (the Huthis) denied any responsibility for the attack.
The other clear limit on the regime's ability to project power is the fragility of the Egyptian economy and the immense damage that the Huthis can inflict if they decide to strike the Suez Canal and other Egyptian infrastructure. The Huthis have already warned that Egypt’s involvement will be considered an act of war with the Suez Canal as a highly likely primary target. This comes at a time when the Egyptian economy is under immense pressure to keep hot money - short-term highly liquid and speculative financial capital - flowing into the country when energy prices remain high and structural imbalances are deepening. For example, the current account balance deficit has widened to reach US$22.5 billion in the fiscal year 2025/26 that ended in June of this year, up from US$15.4 billion the previous year, an increase of 46%. The balance of trade deficit hit a record US$65 billion, driven by an increase in the price of oil and gas which contributed a whopping US$18.3 billion to the deficit. The increased pressure is reflected in the value of the Egyptian pound, trading at more than 56 to the dollar, an historic low. This places a premium on the ability of the regime to attract capital inflows to Egyptian debt instruments, which explains the decision of the central bank to raise interest rates by 100 basis points, the first increase since March 2024. The increase, however, will only act to pile pressure onto the already strained state budget. That in turn will increase the need to borrow more. It is a vicious circle which will be worsened by the now widely expected attack on Iran and the increase in energy prices that are bound to follow, as well as the anticipated increase in interest rates by the Fed, all applying pressure on an already fragile economy.
Hence, Sisi’s decision to deploy troops is facing real constraints and might have significant blowback. If the goal was to placate Saudi Arabia in the hope that it would provide much-needed funds, that does not seem to have worked. On top of Riyadh not issuing an official statement welcoming the deployment of troops, underlining Sisi's increasingly marginalised situation, Egypt was missing from the talks between Türkiye, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran that took place in Tehran. If the Huthis carried out their threat and start to attack the Suez Canal and other crucial infrastructure, it would have a disastrous effect on the Egyptian economy, particularly if it is followed by a mass exodus of hot money. In a war of attrition, this scenario is not unlikely, especially if the Saudi-Huthi conflict drags on. Finally, if Trump launches a major attack on Iran causing energy prices to spike while Egyptian ports and the Suez Canal are under Huthi attack, an already deep fiscal crisis will only get that much deeper. A steep price to pay for Sisi’s act of verbal bravado.
Fr. Bob's Reflection for All Saints Day - Guest Post
Today the Church celebrates the Feast of All Saints: a day when the Church invites us to look beyond the saints we know by name and consider what it truly means to be a saint.
But who are the saints? I once heard someone describe them as “Heaven’s football team.”
We might think so when we read the letters of St. Paul, as he describes the saints as those who have run the race, fought the good fight and pressed on to win the crown. But not all saints were athletes – and sainthood is about much more than winning a race or achieving something extraordinary.
The standard answer is to say that the saints are the heroes and heroines of Christian life –people for whom we name our churches and our children. They are the people who are close to God.
When we think of the saints, we may picture a rare and extraordinary group, people like Francis of Assisi, Anthony of Padua and Teresa of Calcutta. Their holiness can seem so far beyond our own reach that sainthood feels like something reserved only for a select few.
But sanctity is much closer than we realize.
Being a saint means living the two great commandments Jesus gave us: love God and love your neighbor as yourself. If we strive to do that, we, too, can become saints. Perhaps it isn’t as difficult as we might think.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus does not say, “Blessed are those who strive mightily to be righteous.” Instead, He says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” In other words, blessed are those who recognize that they cannot become righteous without God’s grace.
Jesus does not say, “Blessed are the makers of masterpieces.” He says, “Blessed are the meek.” He doesn’t say, “Blessed are those who thrill us with their brilliance.” Instead, He says, “Blessed are those who mourn” – those who do not turn away from the sorrow of a wounded world.
You see, we do not need heroic holiness to become saints. The opportunity for sanctity is already before us. When we offer a listening ear to a struggling friend, help someone in need or feed the hungry, aren’t we becoming the people God calls us to be? Because of something you have done, someone’s life may be a little different.
Sometimes we become so caught up in our sins and shortcomings that we forget the good we have done and how hard we try to do what is right.
St. Augustine once wrote, “People go out to wonder at the mountain peaks, and the boundless waves of the sea, the long courses of the rivers and the motions of the stars, and yet they leave themselves unnoticed. They do not marvel at themselves.”
My friends, take time to marvel – not at ourselves in pride, but at the goodness God has placed within us and at the good works of those around us.
And perhaps, one day, All Saints Day will be your feast day.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Robert Warren, S.A.
Spiritual Director
Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Monday, November 2, 2026
Sunday, November 1, 2026
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)