Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said on Wednesday that Egypt’s proposed military effort was aimed at defending Saudi Arabian territory and did not include an attack on Yemen, adding that Egypt would also defend the territory of any other Arab state if asked to do so.
Al-Sisi said the purpose was to defend Saudi Arabia’s land and borders, and that Egypt’s military effort did not extend beyond the borders of Egypt or those of any brotherly state whose security and stability Egypt was keen to preserve, according to the presidential spokesperson.
Speaking at the Homeland and Citizen Security session on the third day of the Egypt Forum 2026, Al-Sisi said Arab national security was indivisible and that the stability of Egypt’s brothers in the Gulf was a matter of national security for Egypt. He said Egypt’s support for the Gulf states was an extension of common Arab national security and stressed the need to restore stability in all Arab countries, including Sudan, Libya and Somalia.
Concluding his remarks, Al-Sisi said Egypt must continue to strengthen itself and that Egyptian public opinion must remain solid and strong, as the risks were numerous and not limited to the Ethiopian dam.
The session was attended by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Minister of Defence and Military Production Lieutenant General Ashraf Salem Zaher, with the participation of Interior Minister Major General Mahmoud Tawfik; Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Egyptians Abroad Badr Abdelatty; and Lieutenant General Mohamed Abdel Rahman Rabie, Chief of Operations of the Armed Forces and head of the National Authority for Crisis and Emergency Management.
State institutions and 2011
In an intervention during the session, Al-Sisi said targeting state institutions was always part of an effort to topple states, as had been evident in 2011. He described the armed forces and the Interior Ministry as the two pillars of state security and said attempts to target the Interior Ministry in its role as a security institution had never stopped.
A review of events over the past few years showed that efforts to target the ministry and create a negative impression of its practices had continued, he said, adding that people sometimes contributed unintentionally to that impression through their daily engagement with events. This placed a burden on the ministry to launch initiatives to improve and preserve citizens’ perceptions of it, he said.
Al-Sisi reiterated that the targeting of the security establishment in 2011 had been part of a plan against the Egyptian state. He stressed the need to preserve state institutions, saying that failure to do so leads to the collapse of states, which in turn causes major problems. He noted that the situation in the region demonstrated this.
He called for revisiting the events of 2011 and shedding light on them to ensure they were not repeated, citing “the targeting of security forces, the storming of police stations and prisons, and the escape of 33,000 prisoners,” along with the consequences that followed. Targeting the police and armed forces was also intended to cast doubt on the competence and merit of both institutions, he said, stressing that it was difficult to bring down a state as long as its institutions remained strong and trusted by the people.
Al-Sisi directed the armed forces and the Interior Ministry to put forward more ideas and initiatives to maintain continuous communication with the public and convey the facts, which he said would help create a positive impression.
Reform and rehabilitation centres
Al-Sisi said the construction, redevelopment and modernisation of reform and rehabilitation centres stemmed from moral, religious and humanitarian considerations, with the aim of ensuring that no person was punished twice for the same crime. The focus had therefore been on rebuilding character and turning convicts into productive members of society, prompting the state to convert prisons into reform and rehabilitation centres, he said.
He stressed the importance of arranging visits to the centres to see the efforts made there. He said the enormous scale of the damage before 2011 had prompted a reassessment of the detention environment as part of the security establishment, which was also being targeted. He directed the defence and interior ministries to put forward ideas and initiatives to maintain continuous communication with the Egyptian people and ensure there was no separation between the public and state institutions.
Crisis authority
Al-Sisi described the National Authority for Crisis and Emergency Management as a parallel arm supporting the Egyptian state and government in managing the country during crises and emergencies across the republic, particularly through the database it had built. He said the authority had the capabilities needed to carry out its tasks and had become another source of support for state bodies, helping the state and government perform more effectively.
Foreign policy principles
Al-Sisi said the constants of Egyptian foreign policy since 2014 included non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, refraining from conspiracy, preserving the unity of the national state and its institutions, refusing to deal with armed militias, cooperating in construction, development and reconstruction, and engaging positively in balanced relations with all parties.
He stressed the need to maintain strategic balance and said the state should not be drawn into taking action or making decisions in response to popular pressure.
Interior Ministry plan
The session opened with a film titled “Your Message Is Heard… A Journey of Response”, which addressed the efforts of state institutions, particularly the Interior Ministry, to provide security for citizens, especially since the events of January 2011, the presidential spokesperson said.
Tawfik highlighted efforts to develop the security system, combat criminal activity, work steadily to restore security to Egyptian streets and respond quickly to citizens’ reports. He cited car theft, which he said had fallen sharply by as much as 94%.
He said the ministry had drawn up an integrated plan to reshape security work, particularly as methods of committing crimes evolved. The plan was built on five pillars.
The first was developing police facilities and equipping them with modern technology to keep pace with developments across various fields. The second was creating an integrated system based on a scientific approach to security work, using artificial intelligence to detect crime patterns early and draw up plans to counter them. This required upgrading operations rooms across the governorates and linking them to the main centre.
The third pillar was developing personnel, which Tawfik said was essential to the system’s success. This involved creating and developing various areas of security work and training personnel in cybercrime, intellectual property and the early monitoring of terrorist organisations’ movements.
The fourth pillar was raising citizens’ awareness, as citizens were the first line of defence against attempts to undermine the nation’s stability and the security of its people. The fifth was modernising penal policy for convicts.
Crisis authority structure
Presidential spokesperson Mohamed El-Shenawy said Rabie reviewed the working mechanisms of the National Authority for Crisis and Emergency Management and the State Defence Coordination Centre. Rabie said the authority was a sovereign public body with legal personality and security, administrative and technical independence, reporting to the presidency. It aimed to safeguard Egyptian national security, protect public and private property, and ensure citizens’ security and stability, he said.
Rabie said the administrative and legal aspects of the authority had been completed and that it had the executive bodies needed to manage any crisis efficiently.
Abdelatty on foreign policy
Abdelatty opened his remarks by saying foreign policy had become a matter of interest to all segments of Egyptian society, mainly because it was an extension of domestic policy and the two had a reciprocal relationship. Effective foreign policy stemmed from internal stability, while events abroad affected the domestic situation, he said.
Egypt was surrounded by countries experiencing crises and conflicts, situations that affected Egyptian national security, Abdelatty said. He added that Egypt had strategic relations and partnerships with various global powers and managed them wisely in line with the doctrine of “strategic balance” established by the president.
On Red Sea security, Abdelatty said Egypt was working to achieve security and stability in the region alongside the littoral states through cooperation and partnerships in logistics, economic development and tourism.
On Africa, he said Egypt’s economic and developmental future was linked to development across the continent. He noted that Al-Sisi had made 38 visits to African countries, a number he described as unprecedented, and said this openness to the continent aimed to strengthen solidarity with African states.
Abdelatty described water security as an existential issue and said the lives of 110 million Egyptians could not be held hostage to the unilateral will of any party, stressing that Egypt was asking only for the application of international law. He said Egypt’s policy towards the countries of the Horn of Africa was governed by a set of principles, foremost among them non-interference in states’ internal affairs, affirmation of their unity and independence, complete rejection of secession, division and the dismantling of states in the Horn of Africa, and the handling of maritime access through coordination and agreement with neighbouring states.
On Sudan, he said Egypt had historic ties with the country and supported its unity and stability, adding that Egypt would not allow Sudan to be divided or its state institutions to collapse. Egyptian efforts, alongside those of other regional parties, to find a political solution in Sudan were continuing, he said.
On the Palestinian issue, Abdelatty reaffirmed Al-Sisi’s consistent rejection of displacement and outlined Egypt’s efforts to keep aid flowing. He said more than one million tonnes of aid had entered through the Rafah axis, adding that Egypt was working to protect the Palestinian cause from plans to liquidate it and achieve Palestinian consensus.
Water and the Ethiopian dam
Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hani Sewilam outlined past efforts to protect Egypt from the risks posed by the Ethiopian dam, saying the directive had been to ensure that Egyptian citizens suffered no harm. Water treatment plants had been built and various projects implemented, including canal lining and the New Delta project, he said, adding that the volume of treated and reused water had reached 23.2bn cubic metres a year. These efforts aimed to protect citizens from the effects of any unilateral measures, address the consequences of climate change and respond to population growth, he said, outlining some of the water-saving projects implemented in Egypt.
On the Ethiopian dam, Sewilam said Egypt had been patient and had consistently acted calmly, doing everything possible on the issue through negotiations and the Declaration of Principles agreement, which he described as a step demonstrating Egypt’s good intentions towards the Ethiopian people. He said the Ethiopian side had unfortunately failed to implement the Declaration of Principles.
Negotiations hosted in Washington had produced an agreement approved by Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, which he described as balanced for all parties. However, the Ethiopian side withdrew before signing it, he said. The issue subsequently proceeded along different tracks that yielded no results, until Egypt decided to stop negotiating.
Sewilam said the Nile Basin comprised more than Ethiopia alone, adding that Egypt’s relations with the other southern Nile Basin countries had reached their highest level under Al-Sisi. He cited Egyptian investments worth $120m in those countries, as well as water wells, dam and flood-protection projects, technical support for establishing weather forecasting centres, and mutual visits.
Solutions existed, but they required genuine intentions from all parties, he said. He noted the possibility of establishing an electricity grid linking all Nile Basin countries with Egypt, saying electricity should therefore not be used as a pretext for building dams, as it was a technical matter that could be resolved in the future.
If the purpose of building dams was to share water, he said, Nile Basin countries received 7,000 billion cubic metres of rainfall that could be harvested and directed towards agriculture, drinking water or industry. The Nile Basin itself carried between 1,600 billion and 2,000 billion cubic metres of water a year, of which 55.5 billion cubic metres reached Egypt, representing less than 3% of the rainfall across Nile Basin countries, he said.
This meant there was no water crisis in the Nile Basin countries, while Egypt faced a water crisis because it lacked sufficient water resources, Sewilam said, adding that Egypt and the other Nile Basin countries could cooperate to use water for their mutual benefit.
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