Türkiye plans to host a four-way meeting in Istanbul in the coming days to persuade Egypt to move away from the security alliance in which the UAE is involved and join the security alliance in which Saudi Arabia is involved.
The Istanbul meeting is expected to be attended by:
- Muhammad Dar — Pakistan’s Foreign Minister.
- Hakan Fidan — Türkiye’s Foreign Minister.
- Faisal bin Farhan — Saudi Foreign Minister.
- Badr Abdelatty — Egypt’s Foreign Minister.
The region is reportedly witnessing the emergence of two new rival blocs:
- The India–UAE–Israel bloc.
- The Pakistan–Saudi Arabia–Türkiye bloc.
It is also reported that Israel carried out strikes yesterday, Tuesday, on the Abu al-Duhur military airbase in Syria, a Turkish military base. This is considered the clearest attack by the bloc involving Israel against the bloc involving Türkiye.
Egyptians close to the government and decision-makers have said, since reports emerged of attempts to bring Egypt into the Mecca Agreement, that Egypt and its status require it to remain independent and not subordinate to any party.