Saudi Arabia and Egypt agree to build Red Sea bridge

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdul-Aziz announced on Friday that a bridge is to be built across the Red Sea to connect his country with Egypt, Anadolu has reported. The Saudi monarch made the announcement in the presence of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in a press conference at Al-Ittihadiya Presidential Palace in Cairo.

The deal for the bridge is one of a number of agreements to be signed by the two leaders. According to King Salman, building the bridge will help to develop relations between Saudi and Egypt. At that point in the proceedings, Al-Sisi suggested that the structure should be named after the Saudi monarch.

Meanwhile, the king expressed his hope for the formation of a joint Arab force, which was announced during the Arab League meeting in March last year. He reiterated the importance of preventing any external interference in Arab affairs, a pointed reference to the Arab states’ rejection of Iranian involvement in the region.

Al-Sisi hailed this example of Egyptian-Saudi cooperation which represents, he said, “a strategic partnership between the main two wings of the Arab nation.” He reminded those present that, as a young man, King Salman volunteered with the Saudi force sent to Egypt to face the Tripartite Aggression against Egypt in 1956, the so-called “Suez Crisis”, when Britain, France and Israel invaded the country in an ultimately vain attempt to block the nationalisation of the Suez Canal.