<P> According to a 2013 Pew global opinion poll, 78% of Egyptians express a favourable view of Saudi Arabia, with 19% expressing an unfavourable view . </P> <P> Between 1811 and 1818 Ibrahim Pasha, son of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, governor of Egypt, led a campaign against the Emirate of Diriyah--as the First Saudi State was known--on behalf of the Ottoman Sultan . Ibrahim conquered Hejaz and Nejd and brought that first Saudi state to an end . </P> <P> In the years immediately after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia were cordial, driven by mutual suspicion of the Hashemites reigning in Jordan and (especially) Iraq at the time, and continuing from an anti-Hashemite alliance formed by King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, King Farouk of Egypt and President Shukri al - Quwatli of Syria after the foundation of the Arab League in 1945 . Subsequently, Nasser and King Saud of Saudi Arabia co-operated to limit the reach of the Baghdad Pact, which they felt was designed to increase the influence of Hashemite Iraq . As a result, the two countries signed a bilateral military pact in 1955, and worked to successfully prevent Jordan from joining the Baghdad Pact . Egypt came to have extensive involvement in the Saudi army, economy and education system . However the alliance was undermined by Saudi anxieties about the Egyptian government's promotion of anti-monarchical forces in the Arab World (including the uncovering of an Egyptian - style Saudi Free Officers Movement and increasing labour unrest), Egypt's increasing shift towards the Soviet Union, and efforts by Iraq and its western allies including the United States to drive a wedge between the two countries . By 1958 this deterioration in the relationship had led to King Saud offering a bribe of £ 1.9 million to Abdel Hamid al - Sarraj, the head of Syrian intelligence at the time and later Vice-President of the United Arab Republic, to secure the assassination of Nasser . </P> <P> Thus under President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt, backed by the Soviet Union, came to represent the Non-Aligned Movement and pan-Arabism, and was a nominal advocate of secularism and republicanism . The Saudis by contrast were strong supporters of absolute monarchy and Islamist theocracy, and were generally close to the governments of the United Kingdom and United States . This meant that the Saudi - Egyptian rivalry was one of the many threads of the Arab Cold War, which was manifested for example in the North Yemen Civil War, in which a Nasserist military junta headed by Abdullah as - Sallal overthrew the pro-Saudi Yemeni monarchy . </P>

On which side did arabia and egypt fight