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oreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Wednesday that about 5,000 Indonesians residing in Egypt were safe and therefore there was no need to evacuate them out of the Middle Eastern nation just yet.

'€œWe are keeping an eye on the situation [in Egypt]. If you watch television news, the situation there does look uncertain. However, as of today, the protection of Indonesians there has been conducive,'€ Marty told reporters at the State Palace.

'€œPreviously when there was tension [in Egypt], we evacuated almost 4,000 Indonesians. But such an effort is not necessary now despite the worsening situation,'€ he added.

Marty was referring to Egypt'€™s political crisis in 2011, which eventually led to the fall of then president Hosni Mubarak.

Indonesian representative offices in Egypt have also urged all Indonesians, both those in Cairo and in other cities, to remain vigilant due to increasing political tensions after the Egyptian military on Monday gave President Mohamed Mursi an ultimatum, giving him 48 hours to end the crisis or face a solution imposed by the military.

The majority of Indonesians in Egypt are students living in Cairo and several other provinces in the country.

The Indonesian Embassy in Cairo has also opened a 24-hour hotline for Indonesians who need information and assistance.

The embassy'€™s head of information, social and political affairs, Dahlia Kusuma Dewi, said Indonesian representative offices would carry out their activities as usual.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Gulf Arab rulers were resisting the temptation to gloat in public about the political woes of Egypt'€™s Muslim Brotherhood, a group most of them mistrust, for fear of deepening unrest in a country that remains a potential ally in their standoff with Iran.

Officials and analysts said official Gulf Arab silence reflected a longstanding belief among the mainly small, US-allied Sunni Muslim-ruled oil producers that their security is closely linked to that of Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab World, which is also Sunni.

For most of the past 30 years Egypt has been a strategic ally for Gulf Arab states worried about being dominated by the much bigger, Shiite Muslim Islamic Republic across the Gulf.

Now, with the stakes so high and Egypt'€™s situation so volatile, the official thinking seems to be that public meddling might only make things worse, analysts say.

Expressions of concern are couched in term of seeking the common good and favouring dialogue.

'€œTo have a peaceful and stable Egypt is very important for Saudi and the rest of the Arab world,'€ said Abdullah al-Askar, foreign affairs committee chairman at Saudi Arabia'€™s Shura Council, a body appointed by King Abdullah to advise on policy.

Stressing he was speaking in his personal capacity, Askar said that given the anti-government protests'€™ size, Mursi should be more open to the opposition'€™s complaints.

'€œI think it'€™s advisable to give attention to these people and listen to them. He was elected and came to power with the voice of these people,'€ Askar told Reuters.

The only official comments from the Gulf on the situation in Egypt came from Saudi Arabia'€™s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, who appealed to Egyptians to avoid bloodshed, and Kuwait'€™s Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah.

'€œIn this period, although we are following the developments and events in Egypt with concern, I want to reiterate our confidence that our Egyptian brothers are capable of overcoming the current situation,'€ Sheikh Sabah said. '€” Reuters