The Watchmen Report
Middle East Eye

Why Egypt held back from joining Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan's defence pact

Hey Watchmen, Egypt sitting out this Turkey-Saudi-Pakistan defense pact isn't confusion, it's calculation, and it tells you everything about where these regional powers really stand with each other. Egypt and Turkey have never trusted each other, and it goes back further than most folks realize. Cairo watched Ankara back the Muslim Brotherhood through Morsi, watched Erdogan cozy up with Iran's orbit, and el-Sisi's whole government came to power crushing that very movement. You don't sign a mutual defense pact with the country that backed the man you overthrew. My friends, this is exactly the kind of shifting-sand alliance picture the prophet Daniel gave us when he described kings of the north and south jockeying for position, allying and un-allying as it suits them in the moment. Egypt isn't neutral out of weakness, they're neutral out of memory. And watch what this really exposes, the fractures inside the Islamic world itself. The West likes to talk about "the Muslim world" like it's one bloc, but Scripture never described end-times alignments that way, it described nations rising and falting against each other, alliances of convenience that dissolve the moment interests diverge. Egypt has its own ambitions in the region, its own economic strain from the Suez losses, its own long memory of Turkey playing footsie with Muslim Brotherhood networks Cairo bled to shut down. Psalm 83 gives us a picture of a coalition of neighboring peoples conspiring together against Israel, but even that coalition required real alignment of purpose, not just proximity, and what we're seeing right now is the opposite, powers who share a region but not a heart. Keep your eyes up, Watchmen, these pieces are moving into position even when they look like they're pulling apart. Stay in the Word, stay ready, and watch.
Read the full article →
More from The Watchmen Report

← All of The Watchmen Report