Egypt fetes Saudi crown prince during visit to Suez Canal

CAIRO: Egypt gave a warm welcome to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday during a visit to the Suez Canal on the second day of his three-day trip.
Posters featuring Salman alongside President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi lined major roads in central Cairo, where Salman will later visit the main Muslim and Christian institutions and see a performance at the Opera.
The prince and el-Sisi traveled through one of the new tunnels being built under the canal, before boarding a boat from a red-carpeted dock as a military band played fanfare.
Egypt seeks investments from Saudi Arabia to help develop the area, where Cairo wants to establish an international transport, logistics and production hub.
The two are also expected to discuss the ongoing wars in Syria and Yemen, as well as their joint boycott of tiny Gulf nation Qatar, which they accuse of fomenting extremism across the region.
Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, and Saudi Arabia, one of the wealthiest, tightened their longstanding alliance after el-Sisi led the military overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013, with Riyadh providing tens of billions of dollars in aid.
The two countries have plans to build a causeway across the Red Sea and to jointly develop areas on both sides.