REUTERS

LONDON SAUDI Arabia frets that Egypt, its strongest Arab ally and a major recipient of Saudi funding, is falling under what it sees as the baleful influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Riyadh recalled its ambassador from Cairo at the weekend in a spat that underlines the misgivings of the robed princes who rule the world’s top oil exporter and who have watched Egypt’s revolution and its often chaotic aftermath with alarm.

They fear that political uncertainty in Egypt, which votes in a presidential election this month, may undermine a decades-old strategic bond between the two pro-US Arab allies, a bond already shaken when Egyptians toppled their ruler last year.

“The Saudis viewed the ouster of (President) Hosni Mubarak as a very negative development,” said Robert Jordan, the US ambassador in Riyadh from 2001-03.

“They’re concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood and the uncertainty of the leadership.

And they’re very sensitive at any hint that that movement could spread to Saudi or other Gulf countries.” Riyadh’s recall for consultations of Ambassador Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al Kattan after protests outside the Saudi embassy against the arrest of an Egyptian lawyer in the kingdom may prove fleeting.

Egypt seems keen to have Kattan back, judging by government statements and reports in state-owned newspapers of Egyptians waving Saudi flags at the embassy calling for his return.

It was street protests outside the Saudi embassy last week that caused umbrage in Riyadh. Crowds were protesting at the arrest of Egyptian lawyer Ahmed El-Gezawi by Saudi authorities.

Egyptian activists said he had been detained for speaking out against ill-treatment of Egyptians in the kingdom.

The Saudi authorities said he had been smuggling drugs.

Even if the diplomatic quarrel is smoothed over, it reflects the new fragility of a once-solid alliance between the most populous Arab nation and the richest.

Saudi Arabia last month agreed to grant Cairo $2.7 billion in aid - and has given no public sign so far of reconsidering this pledge - but it fears Egypt’s political evolution will amplify the Brotherhood’s regional clout while diminishing Saudi influence, said an Egyptian official who asked not to be named.

The Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia share Sunni Muslim values, but Riyadh regards the movement as an ideological competitor with an aggressively activist political doctrine that might destabilise allies and foment discord inside the kingdom.

“Withdrawing the ambassador was a way of reminding Egyptians that Saudi security concerns have to be respected,” said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Centre.

“The Brotherhood hasn’t really gone out of its way to reassure Saudi Arabia about regional security interests.” A Saudi government spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

Permeating Saudi worries about the Muslim Brotherhood are decades of ideological rivalry.

“The Brothers offer a religious political discourse that’s in competition with the Wahhabi one. It’s something of a threat to the government because it enjoys a certain legitimacy by virtue of its religiosity,” said Thomas Hegghammer, author of Jihad in Saudi Arabia.

Since the 18th century, the ruling Al Saud family have enjoyed a close alliance with clerics of the ultra-conservative Wahhabi school of Islam.