The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen walked back comments he made about Egypt volunteering to send troops to Yemen, Al Shorouk reports. He says his comments meant Egyptian involvement, not in context of the Yemen war, but in the coalition as part of the Arab joint-defence forces agreement. Egypt had immediately denied committing troops to Yemen.

That said, a Wall Street Journal story on the “Saudi-led antiterror coalition” includes a suggestion from an unnamed Western diplomat that Egypt is under pressure to provide troops to Saudi Arabia. The diplomat is quoted as saying, “They wanted their Sunni neighbors to help defend them from Iran. They turned to Pakistan and Egypt—Sunni countries that have armies.” The piece also reports that “under pressure from Riyadh, close ally Pakistan will provide a separate force of some 5,000 men to Saudi Arabia to help guard its vulnerable south, close to the border with Yemen, Pakistani officials said, a deployment yet to be announced.”