Egypt's economy is getting worse, so El-Sisi meets with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi met with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the city of Jeddah on the Red Sea. This happened as Cairo is trying to get out of a serious financial crisis.

The Saudi state-run SPA news agency said that the two leaders met on Monday to talk about how they could work together and what was going on in the region. Sunday was the day that El-Sisi arrived in Saudi Arabia.

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It said that other Saudi and Egyptian officials, like Saudi National Security Advisor Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban and Egypt's Chief of Intelligence Abbas Kamel, were also at the meeting.

Since el-Sisi took power in 2013 after leading the overthrow of democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, Saudi Arabia has helped Cairo in many ways and given Egypt a lot of money to keep its economy going.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries put money into Egypt's central bank and promised to make big new investments when Egypt's financial problems became clear and got worse after Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

But el-visit Sisi's comes after Riyadh said it would no longer support its allies financially without conditions.

In January, the Saudi finance minister made the change clear at a meeting in Davos, Switzerland, where the world's most powerful political and economic leaders get together once a year.

Mohammed al-Jadaan said, "We used to give direct grants and deposits with no strings attached." "We're going to change that. We are working with international organizations to actually say, "Reforms are needed."

After Davos, there was a small fight between the two countries when two well-known Saudi commentators close to the monarchy criticized Egypt on social media. They talked about Egypt's "failure" since its revolution in 1952 and how the military controls the economy.

In what seemed to be a response, Abdel Razek Tawfiq, editor-in-chief of the Egyptian state-owned newspaper Al Gomhuria, wrote an editorial saying that the "barefoot" and newly wealthy countries had no right to insult Egypt.

"The mean, the scoundrels, and the nouveau-riche have no right to insult their masters," he wrote, using insulting stereotypes and claims of historical superiority.

After Egypt got a $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in December of last year, it became even more dependent on the wealthy Gulf countries. The loan comes with the expectation of new financing and debt rollovers from the Gulf, as well as changes to the way the economy works.

The meeting in Jeddah is also happening at a time when a lot of diplomatic moves are being made in the area.

In March, China helped Saudi Arabia sign a big deal to get back in touch with Iran, which was once its biggest enemy. After the deal was made, Saudi state television said in March that Saudi Arabia was also talking with Syria about the possibility of resuming consular services in both countries.

The re-establishment of ties between Riyadh and Damascus would be the most important step Arab states have taken yet to normalize their relationships with al-Assad, who was shunned by many Western and Arab states after his security forces used violence against protesters in 2011, which led to a civil war.

Saudi Arabia is also trying to get back in touch with Turkey after years of bad feelings, which were made worse when Saudi agents killed Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, in Istanbul in a brutal way.

In March, Saudi Arabia and Ankara made a deal for Saudi Arabia to put $5 billion in the Turkish central bank. This was less than two months before Turkey's national elections.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES