Egypt's Parliament Backs Sisi on Saudi Arabia as 86% of Riyadh Flights Are Cancelled

Egypt's parliament voted on Monday to authorise President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to take "all necessary measures" to help Saudi Arabia defend itself against attacks by Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis. The authorisation followed an October 19 explainer noting the vote was expected this week. It does not, on the evidence available, mean Egyptian forces have deployed or that Cairo has entered the war directly.

The timing is the story. On the same day as the vote, aviation data showed Houthi attacks had grounded almost nine out of every 10 scheduled flights at Riyadh's airport this month — about 86% of scheduled flights cancelled. The Saudi capital's skies are, for practical purposes, close to empty.

Also on Monday, top officials from the Saudi-led Mecca defence pact countries met Iranian officials in Tehran to push for peace while the Houthis launched more attacks. The pact — Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan — has a permanent secretariat, rotating leadership and provision to admit new members, which suggests something more ambitious than a standard defence memorandum. Whether those talks produced anything is not established.

The wider context is a Red Sea that had briefly calmed during the Gaza ceasefire and has since reverted. Renewed US-Houthi violence ended that calm and threatens escalation beyond the waterway.

What Egypt's authorisation actually changes is unclear. The vote grants authority; it does not specify what military support Cairo will provide, whether Egyptian forces will deploy to Saudi Arabia or Yemen, or how Iran will respond. It also does not establish whether Washington supports Egyptian involvement, or in what form.

What can be said is narrower and more consequential: a conflict that has already disrupted Red Sea shipping and regional aviation is now pulling in a new regional player by parliamentary vote, even as the pact's own members try diplomacy in Tehran. Collective defence and broader war are both still live possibilities. The evidence does not yet pick between them.