Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said on Saturday, October 17, that he was willing to 'carry out any measure to protect' Saudi Arabia from Houthi attacks. He said it would be 'inconceivable' for Cairo to stand by if the kingdom were harmed. He added, with emphasis: 'We are speaking only about defence.' His parliament convened an emergency session at his request on Sunday. Reuters reported the legislature was expected to vote this week on authorising military assistance to Saudi Arabia if Riyadh requests it. No request has been made. Egypt has made no specific commitment. The Houthis fired two missiles at Aden airport on Friday. The Saudi-led coalition intercepted four drones over Riyadh, the Eastern Province and southern Saudi Arabia on Saturday. The situation in which Sisi made his offer has not improved since he made it.

The Gulf Cooperation Council held a foreign ministers meeting in Manama, Bahrain, on Sunday. The resulting statement condemned repeated Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and pledged GCC solidarity under the bloc's joint defence agreement. The council called for tighter enforcement of the UN arms embargo on the Houthis and urged member and non-member states that had not yet done so to designate the Houthis a terrorist organisation. It welcomed a UN Security Council statement from October 15 condemning Houthi strikes and threats to Red Sea shipping. UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman in Abu Dhabi on Sunday to discuss regional security. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, France and now potentially Egypt and Britain are all converging on a position. Expressing a position is one kind of convergence.

Military analysts cited by Reuters said that Egyptian assistance, if authorised and requested, would most likely involve air defence systems and naval operations rather than ground forces. The parliament session is about authorisation, not deployment. The 'if the kingdom asks' clause in Sisi's offer is not incidental. Saudi Arabia has not asked. The kingdom is accepting French troops at Yanbu, British air defence support and GCC political solidarity, but it has not formally requested Egyptian military intervention. Egypt has offered it publicly anyway, with the careful framing of a government that expects the offer will not be taken up: visible, conditional, with the emphasis placed on what it would not be.

Inside Yemen, no one is speaking only about defence. Five people were killed near the presidential palace in Aden on Thursday when the Houthi-aligned forces targeted the government's temporary base. The Houthis fired two missiles at Aden airport on Friday. A tugboat off the UAE coast was struck by two projectiles on Sunday, leaving one crew member with minor injuries. The World Health Organisation warned that Taiz's 12 hospitals had enough fuel for four more days, had run out of surgical supplies and were dealing with a cholera outbreak. More than 233,000 people are displaced, about 121,000 of them in Taiz province. Etihad cancelled all its Abu Dhabi flights to Riyadh and Dammam through October 24, citing 'regional disruption.' Saudi Arabia has extended remote schooling in Riyadh and the surrounding region. Sisi is speaking only about defence. The hospitals in Taiz have four days of fuel.