Egyptian President Sisi received on Saturday from Saudi King Salman an invitation to participate in the US-Arab Islamic summit that will be held on May 21 in Riyadh to be attended by US President Donald Trump, Egyptian presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef said in a statement.
The invitation was handed to Sisi by Saudi Civil Service Minister Essam bin Saeed and the Egyptian president welcomed the invitation and hailed the Egyptian-Saudi strategic relations.
"President Sisi expressed appreciation for the Saudi king's invitation to attend the Arab-Islamic-US summit, especially in the light of the different challenges facing the region topped by fighting terrorism," the Egyptian presidential spokesman said.
Ties between Egypt and Saudi Arabia have gone through ups and downs over the past year, mostly because of their different views on some regional issues particularly the situations in Syria and Yemen.
However, the latest Arab summit in Jordan and the efforts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) paved the way for President Sisi's meeting with Saudi King Salman in Riyadh, after which the Egyptian president continued a Gulf tour that included the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain to maintain warm ties with the Saudi-led Gulf states.
Saudi Arabia led Gulf support for Sisi's administration with billions of U.S. dollars and tons of oil supplies after Sisi led the military ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against Morsi and his now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
US President Trump signed in January an executive order banning entry of citizens from seven Muslim-majority states over security threats. He downsized them to six later in March, including Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran, excluding Iraq from the previous list.
--IAN
ahm/
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