Cairo: Egypt on Friday hailed late Saudi Arabia King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, a staunch ally of Cairo, as a great leader, declaring seven days of official mourning over his death.
“The Egyptian people will not forget the historic stands of King Abdullah towards Egypt and its people,” a presidential statement said.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arab world have lost one of its great leaders.”
King Abdullah, who died early Friday at nearly 91, was a major ally of the Egyptian government following the army’s ouster of president Mohammad Mursi in mid-2013.
Following the inauguration of Al Sissi last May, the Saudi monarch proposed an international conference to help the Egyptian economy, which had been battered by more than three years of political tension and street turmoil following the 2011 uprising against long-time president Hosni Mubarak.
Like Egypt, Saudi Arabia outlawed Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Al Sissi, who was attending the Davos Economic Forum when Abdullah died, cut short his visit to Switzerland to go to Saudi Arabia to offer condolences, his office said.
Last week, Al Sissi made a stopover in Saudi Arabia where he visited King Abdullah at a Riyadh hospital.
