El Sisi attends Mecca summit as Qatar takes a step in from the cold: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi affirmed Egypt’s commitment to protecting Saudi Arabia and the UAE from “terrorist threats” during an emergency Arab League summit in Mecca at the weekend, but stopped short of calling for action against Iran. Saudi Arabia called the meeting in response to attacks on Saudi and Emirati oil facilities last month, which Riyadh and Washington blame on Iran. El Sisi condemned the Houthi attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities and called for a “comprehensive strategic approach” to dealing with the crises in Libya, Syria and Yemen, but made no mention of Iran. “Explicit acts of terrorism require a clear position from all the international community to condemn it first, and then to work by all means to deter the perpetrators,” El Sisi said referring to the Houthis. You can read the president’s speech in-full here.

Saudi Arabia calls on Arab leaders to take firm action against Iran: Governments should use “all means to stop the Iranian regime from interfering in the internal affairs of other countries,” King Salman said during the summit.

Is Qatar coming in from the cold? Qatari PM Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani shook hands with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman at the summit, described by one observer as a “huge step forward” to thawing the relations between the two countries. The Kremlinology continues here.

El Sisi also attended the Organization for Islamic Cooperation summit yesterday: El Sisi urged OIC members to do more to combat the spread of terrorism and solve the ongoing crises in Libya, Yemen and Syria. The president also announced that Egypt will host the OIC’s 2020 Ministerial Conference on Women. Read El Sisi’s OIC speech in-full here.

The president met with several leaders on the sidelines of the OIC summit, including King Salman, Lebanese PM Saad Hariri, Pakistani PM Imran Khan, and President of Gambia Adama Barrow.