🇪🇬⚡- Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's schizophrenic foreign policy continues to face questions over its strategic direction. Egypt had been expected to become the fourth signatory to the historic Mecca Agreement defense pact over the weekend, but ultimately withdrew at the last minute, highlighting yet again an inconsistent and often contradictory approach to regional affairs.

One of the main obstacles to Cairo becoming a founding member was its full diplomatic and strong relationship with Israel. Egypt has also sought to avoid taking sides in the growing rivalry between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, maintaining close ties with both capitals, particularly the UAE.

During the recent U.S.-Iran war, Egypt played an active military role in support of Emirati airspace security. Cairo and Abu Dhabi have also formed a non-official alliance to combat Muslim Brotherhood influence in the wider region, an alliance that has been at odds with its own self interests at times. For instance, whether that's Egypt's backing of UAE-supported, anti-Islamist commander Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya, while also backing Sudan's Islamist-leaning and Qatari-backed Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. A few months ago, Riyadh asked el-Sisi to close the al-Kufrah supply route for the Rapid Support Forces in southeast Libya–Egypt did, but for a week only.