Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Friday admonished his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian over Tehran's missile and drone attacks on its Arab neighbours, saying Cairo "decisively condemns and absolutely rejects" them.
"These attacks must end and must end now," the Egyptian leader told Mr Pezeshkian over the phone, according to a statement from Mr El Sisi's office.
The Egyptian leader also reminded Mr Pezeshkian that Gulf Arab states along with Iraq and Jordan never supported the Israel-US war against Iran and had no part in it, according to the statement.
"On the contrary, they contributed to efforts to reduce tension and supported US-Iranian negotiations to reach a diplomatic resolution of the crisis," it added.
"The President emphasised that Egypt expects the principle of good neighbourliness to be upheld and that these attacks must stop and must stop now," the statement said. "Egypt is seriously alarmed by the negative consequences of the current escalation on regional stability.
It added that Cairo is "prepared to make every effort to to mediate to reach a political and diplomatic resolution of the ongoing crisis".
Regional powerhouses Egypt and Iran have in recent years ended decades of tension in their relations. Their differences had chiefly been over what Cairo sees as Tehran's meddling in internal Arab affairs and its support for armed groups like Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen.
Meetings between the leaders of both nations and their top officials have been frequent but they have not restored full diplomatic relations - something that is seen as a reflection of Cairo's enduring disapproval of some of Iran's regional policies.
Meanwhile, Egypt and Gulf Arab states are bound by close political and economic relations. Those states have frequently come to the rescue of Egypt over the past decade, stepping in with billions of dollars in loans, grants and oil gifts to keep the country's ailing economy afloat.
Egypt has maintained that the Gulf region is part of its national security sphere, insisting that it would rush to the rescue of its allies there are threatened.
However, Egypt hasn't publicly said whether it was contributing in any way to the defence of its Gulf allies as they fend off Iranian drone and missile attacks.
Last week, the Iranian President said his country’s interim leadership council had asked forces to stop attacking Gulf states unless his country is attacked from their territory.
His statement raised questions on whether the council has the authority to enforce the halt and the attacks continued anyway, with their targets including civilian sites and oil facilities.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said last week that Mr Pezeshkian's "openness to de-escalation" had been "almost immediately killed" by US President Donald Trump, who earlier in the day claimed the Iranian President had "surrendered" to his country's neighbours.
“I need to apologise on behalf of myself to the neighbouring countries that have come under attack by Iran because of the vicious assault on us,” Mr Pezeshkian said last week. “We lost our supreme leader, our compatriots and loved ones. Our armed forces, when their commanders were gone, conducted the operations that were necessary and protected our country with strength.
“The interim council approved a decision yesterday, that decision was relayed to our forces that they should no longer attack neighbouring countries unless there is an attack on Iran staged from their territory."
Gulf states have repeatedly said they would not allow US forces to use their territory to launch attacks against Iran, calling instead for a peaceful solution and an agreement to de-escalate.
