Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is due to travel to Cairo on Thursday amid growing controversy over Egypt’s noninclusion in the newly minted Mecca Agreement between Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Fidan will take part in the Turkey-Egypt Joint Planning Group to discuss political, economic and defense ties, alongside regional cooperation on Gaza, Syria, Sudan and Libya, Turkish media reported. However, there is widespread speculation among observers that Fidan’s priority will be to smooth over friction between Saudi Arabia and Egypt. 

Their differences burst into the open this week, with well-placed Saudi sources claiming to Middle East Eye that it was Riyadh that had decided not to let Cairo join the defense pact signed in Mecca last Friday. The pact’s immediate purpose, at least for Saudi Arabia, appears to be to deter further attacks by Iran and Tehran’s Houthi allies by raising the diplomatic costs — that is, by putting fellow Muslim countries potentially in the line of fire.

The United States’ perceived failure to properly defend its Gulf allies against those attacks is seen as one of the principal motivating factors behind the alliance.

Egypt has yet to formally comment on the issue.