Morsi attempts to ease Saudi concerns Mohamed Morsi: no intention to 'export the revolution' The visit by Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's new president, to Saudi Arabia this week is being seen as an early test of his ability to assuage the fears of a crucial regional ally and to safeguard important political and economic relations with the oil-rich kingdom. Though Saudi officials have said little in public about the seismic upheavals in Egyptian domestic politics since the revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak as president, the kingdom is understood to have viewed the changes with enormous suspicion. In his inauguration speech, in what has been construed as a message to the rulers of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, Mr Morsi was careful to point out that Egypt had no intention to "export the revolution." The statement reflected fears that the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Mr Morsi is a leading member, might co-operate with Islamist opposition movements throughout the region. "The Saudis were naturally opposed to the revolution," says an Arab diplomat. They are not with dramatic change. This will be the first time the two countries discuss what has happened in the past 18 months and more importantly, where do things go from here, given that the transition in Egypt is not over. The Egyptian economy is bound to be at the heart of discussions between Mr Morsi, who was due to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, and King Abdullah. The kingdom is a crucial source of aid and investment and has already given cash-strapped Egypt $500m in budget support in addition to an eight-year loan of $1bn to shore up foreign currency reserves. Some 1.65m Egyptians work in Saudi Arabia and their remittances are an indispensable source of foreign currency for state coffers, which are running perilously low. Any significant tensions in the relationship between Cairo and Riyadh could have a negative impact on the job security of Egyptian expatriates in the kingdom. In a country suffering from high unemployment, opportunities in the Saudi job market have long helped ease some of the pressures in Egypt, and lifted millions of its people into the middle-class. Saudi Arabia, like other Gulf countries, has in the past used its role as a source of valued remittances to pressure or punish other states, most prominently when it expelled hundreds of thousands of Yemeni expatriates in the wake of the country's support for the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Commentators say Egypt's new president will be keen to avoid any disturbances of its remittance flow. Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi columnist, wrote on Wednesday that Egypt's new rulers "are well aware that getting off to a good start with the public depends on the number of jobs they create, and on law and order, more than on an immediate showdown with the generals or a sweeping foreign-policy change." For Saudi Arabia, having Egypt return to its prior role as a dependable ally would be a relief to those in charge of its foreign policy, with the kingdom facing troubles in almost every direction. It has a tense relationship with neighbouring Iraq, which it sees as being ruled by proxies of Iran, its arch-enemy. On the southern border is Yemen, where al-Qaeda linked militias are in open war with the country's fragile central government, occasionally seizing control of entire swaths of countryside. And in regard to Syria, the kingdom is believed to be shipping weapons and funding to rebel forces attempting to topple the regime of president Bashar al-Assad. Furthermore, after sending troops to help crush an uprising by the Shia majority in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia has become a de-facto guarantor of the country's minority Sunni monarchy amid a low-intensity rebellion that shows no sign of dissipating. With so many foreign policy challenges confronting the country's ageing monarchy, a friendly ally in Egypt is something analysts say the kingdom seems keen to secure - and willing to pay for. "There is one word that describes what the Saudis want: stability," says Jean-François Seznec, an expert on Saudi Arabia at Georgetown university, Washington. The last thing they want is an unstable Egypt. They may not like to have the Muslim Brotherhood in charge, but they'd rather have them and a stable government than a lot of strife. In return for guarantees of stability and reliability in foreign policy, the Saudis are likely to provide aid to help stabilise Egypt's economy, Mr Seznec says. The country is the largest source of investment in Egypt from the Arab world, and observers believe that beyond direct aid, a sign that the Saudi leadership has reached an understanding with Mr Morsi could trigger a revival of investment. Bob Jordan, the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2001-03, says the economic lure will encourage an accommodating stance from Mr Morsi. "There are financial relationships that are important to them," Mr Jordan says, "and Saudi Arabia has the deepest pockets, particularly at time when Egypt's economy is struggling."