Alwaght- “Syria stops Saudi Arabia oil supplies to Egypt.” This is a too much of an odd news headline that found its way to media last week. But it is a truth. Influenced by the Syrian crisis, the kingdom ceased oil exports to Egypt.
Everything began when the Egyptian envoy to the UN Security Council has voted in favor of a Russia-proposed Syria resolution at the international body. A move that publicized already-existing Cairo's differences with some of Arab countries, apparently Saudi Arabia, on the conflict in Syria. This division in position on Syria was already speculated on by the analysts. But now this Egypt envoy's vote to back Russia's proposal has shown that how much Riyadh and Cairo’s gaps on the terrorism crisis in Syria are deep and complicated.
Just last month when the UN held its General Assembly, Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister, announced that Egypt and Saudi Arabia were at odds over ways to end the Syrian conflict, especially the necessity to change the government in this country and the future of leadership.
These comments made way for unveiling the first signs of differences between Riyadh and Cairo about Syria while many analysts had suggested that these gaps could not develop to a degree to fan tensions between them and pave the way for negatively affecting their political and economic relations. But now less than a month after remarks by the Egyptian foreign minister, the Saudi state-owned oil giant Aramco has declared that it will halt oil exports to Egypt, a step taken against Cairo right after Egypt voted in agreement with the Russian resolution to end fighting in Syria.
Meanwhile, a Saudi analyst who is close to the Saudi government has lashed out at Egypt for pro-Russia vote at the Security Council and told the AFP that the kingdom has always showed respect to the Egyptian stances on the Syrian crisis but now the vote in favor of the Russia-proposed Syria resolution which was in a clear opposition to the policies of Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries will push Riyadh’s tolerance to an end.
Abdullah al-Mouallimi, the Saudi Arabian envoy to the UN, who apparently declined to hide anger after Egyptian positive vote to the Russian proposal in an interview with Qatar's Aljazeera news network said that it was saddening that an Arab state voted just against the Arab policy consensus. By Arab consensus the Saudi envoy meant the anti-Syrian government stance taken by the Arab states majorly under the kingdom’s influence. Riyadh is interested in seeing all of the Arab countries share the Saudi leaders' voice that calls for the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to be removed from power.
The Saudi oil firm Aramco’s steps to cut off oil transfer to Egypt which for the first time was revealed by the Egyptian officials, according to the analysts, is a punitive measure against the pro-Assad policy adopted by the Egyptian President General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The Egyptian sources reported, quoting the country’s oil authorities, later last week that Cairo received no oil aids from Aramco since early October, pushing the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation to rush to open bidding for buying oil from alternative suppliers.
Commenting on the case, an Egyptian official has told AFP that before stopping, the Saudi oil firm had informed Cairo of intentions to cease oil supply, and so Egypt was not shock to hear about this measure by Riyadh. This reaction by the Egyptian official could be interpreted as a move to manage and curb any fluctuations in the energy market in the country which is desperately relies on the Saudi Arabian oil supplies. Egypt needs 1.75 million tons of oil every month, 40 percent of it is provided by Saudi Arabia.
Ibrahim al-Qaytani, an Egyptian oil expert, has said that Aramco’s move to stop delivery of 700,000 tons of oil to Egypt was motivated by political grounds.
However, the Saudi Arabian political conditions will not allow the leaders of the country to put so much strains on the government of President el-Sisi. It was earlier this year that the Saudi King Salman visited Egypt. Cairo and Riyadh signed agreement to give two Red Sea islands of Sanafir and Tiran to the kingdom. In return, the Saudi king granted a generous aid package to the critically cash-needing Egypt. Despite the fact that the Egyptian Supreme Court less than three months later revoked the Saudi-Egyptian islands transfer deal, the kingdom, despite paying the aids, showed no reaction to the court’s decision and in a way accepted the ruling. Even several months after the anti-Saudi ruling by the Egyptian Supreme Court Riyadh showed green light to a new $4.5 billion in aid package to Cairo, arguing that the financial help aims at saving the Egyptian Central Bank’s reserves that witnessed a sharp drop recently.
The fact is that although Riyadh officials these days are trying to display anger with Egypt over Cairo’s pro-Syrian stances by stopping oil supplying, the concerns over Muslim Brotherhood's gaining power in Egypt once President el-Sisi gets weak put Saudi Arabia to choose between bad and worse. This is what motivates it to provide Egypt with aids just against its will. These helps come as the kingdom fears emergence of conditions in the region that could be troublesome to it. These conditions are now current in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon. The Saudi leaders are of little patience in dealing with such conditions that are hitting their country which sees itself a leader of other Arab countries. Despite gaps in stances on Syria between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the unfavorable conditions push the Saudi leaders to reluctantly support their not much loyal ally. An ally whose discordant standings on Syria intensify the tensions to the degree of cessation of oil exports.
