Sisi visits Saudi Arabia to cool tensions

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received a royal welcome from King Salman as he landed Sunday in Saudi Arabia for a visit to boost ties after months of tension.

Salman, surrounded by key Saudi officials, greeted Sisi as he stepped off the plane in Riyadh and hosted him for lunch, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

The Egyptian presidency announced the visit in a statement on Friday, saying Sisi's trip was in response to an invitation by Salman and was aimed at "bolstering strategic relations between the two countries".

It said Salman and Sisi would discuss "regional and international issues of common interest".

"The struggle against terrorism which threatens security and stability" in the region and beyond would top their agenda, it said.

Sisi met Salman on the sidelines of an Arab League summit in Jordan last month to break the ice after months of apparent tensions between the two allies.

That encounter on 29 March came days after Egypt announced that Saudi energy giant Aramco had resumed delivery of shipments of petroleum products after abruptly suspending them in October.

Aramco had halted agreed monthly deliveries of 700,000 tonnes of petroleum products without explanation.

The halt came after Egypt voted in favour of a Russian-drafted UN Security Council resolution on Syria that Saudi Arabia strongly opposed.

Moscow is a staunch supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while Riyadh is a key backer of the rebels who are fighting his government.

Ties between Cairo and Riyadh had also suffered after an agreement to hand over to Saudi Arabia two Red Sea islands, signed during a visit by Salman to Cairo last year, was blocked by an Egyptian court ruling.

Earlier this month, an Egyptian court ruled that the decision to block the transfer of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia was invalid.

Cairo has said the islands were Saudi territory that had been leased to Egypt in the 1950s.

Saudi Arabia supported Egypt with billions of dollars in aid after Sisi, then head of the Egyptian army, toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Saudi Arabia is opposed to the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, to which Morsi belongs.