Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman, who has signed with Egypt an agreement allotting 1,000 square kilometres of land in South Sinai for a megacity project, met with several Egyptian media figures in Cairo on Monday to talk about recent events.

Ahram Online reported that, according to Bin Salman, Egypt’s and Saudi Arabia’s foes form a "triangle of evil", comprising Turkey, Iran and terrorist organisations. Bin Salman also claims that Turkey and its President Erdoğan are trying to build a new "Ottoman caliphate," while Iran is attempting to “export revolutions” in the region.

Since the beginning of the Arab Spring, the relationship between Turkey and the Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia has become more strained. When Egypt’s democratically elected president Mohamad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was ousted by a military coup, Turkey supported Morsi. Saudi Arabia backed the Egypt military and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former Minister of Defence who became Egypt’s president after the coup.

The two countries’ perspectives and interests regarding the civil war in Syria are also apparent, as the complex situation in Syria has drawn Turkey closer to Russia and its ally Iran.

In May 2017, a crisis erupted between Qatar and the other Gulf States. Saudi Arabia, together with its allies in the Gulf region including Bahrein and the United Arab Emirates, issued a list of 13 demands from Qatar and cut off diplomatic and economic ties with the country.

Turkey strongly backed Doha, sending dairy and other food products to Qatar to undermine the blockade, as well as announcing the deployment of Turkish troops in the country. At the time, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan denounced the blockade of Qatar as ‘inhumane and un-Islamic’’