
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty (L) held a phone call Tuesday with his Saudi Arabian counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan (R).
In a phone call on Thursday, the two top diplomats emphasized that dialogue and diplomacy must take precedence over military escalation to avert wider regional confrontations.
Minister Abdelatty warned of catastrophic consequences if the cycle of violence continued and the conflict widened, according to a statement from the Egyptian foreign ministry.
Abdelatty asserted that such a situation threatens regional and international peace and security and poses grave challenges to the stability of the entire region.
The call comes as the war entered its 13th day on Thursday, with US and Israeli strikes against Iran continuing and Tehran's retaliatory attacks pressing on against Israel, US military bases in the Gulf, Jordan, and Iraq.
The conflict is also spreading into the seas, turning the region's waterways into a battlefield and destabilizing the global energy market.
The escalation comes as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway carrying a fifth of the world's oil and gas, has effectively ground to a halt, with Iran pledging that "not even a single litre of oil" would be exported from the Gulf to the US and Israel, as long as the war on Tehran continues.
Additionally, Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, continue to intercept dozens of Iranian missiles targeting both US assets and oilfields, as has been the case in the kingdom.
During today’s call, Minister Abdelatty reaffirmed Cairo's unwavering support for Riyadh and other Arab states, expressing solidarity over threats to the kingdom's security.
Abdelatty reiterated Cairo's condemnation of Iranian attacks targeting the security and sovereignty of neighboring states, the statement added.
He said there was no justification for such actions, and stressed the need to uphold the principles of good neighborliness and national sovereignty.
As the war continues, the global energy market has been thrown into its most volatile state in decades. Brent crude prices have surged past $100 a barrel, a 38 percent increase since the war's onset, triggering a global fuel shock reminiscent of the 1970s oil crisis.
In response, international bodies have coordinated a record-breaking release of strategic oil reserves to mitigate the economic fallout.
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