Foreign Minister of Egypt, Sameh Shukriwill visit Syria And Turkey Tomorrow Monday, two countries with which Cairo has had rather “cool” relations for the past ten years or so.
The visit “is a message of Egyptian solidarity to these two brotherly countries after the February 6 earthquake,” which killed more than 46,000 people in Turkey and Syria, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Shukri’s visit to Damascus will be the first visit by an Egyptian foreign minister since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
After the devastating earthquakes, the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi he called his Syrian colleague Bashar al-Assadunprecedented conversation between the heads of the two states.
Sisi then called the Turkish president. Recep Tayyip Erdoganhis former nemesis, with whom he exchanged his first handshake in November at the World Cup in Qatar.
The heads of Egyptian and Syrian diplomacy also spoke on the phone.
Assad has been diplomatically isolated, especially from the Arab scene – Syria is still excluded from the Cairo-based Arab League – since 2011.
But after the earthquake that devastated Syria and Turkey, the Arab countries restored some of their contacts and sent aid to Damascus, which could try to use the tragedy to break out of diplomatic isolation, analysts say.
Today, Assad received a delegation of heads of Arab parliaments. Among them was Egyptian parliament speaker Hanafi el-Ghabali, who was described by the Egyptian state press as “the highest Egyptian leader to have been welcomed in Damascus” in more than a decade.
Relations between Cairo and Damascus have never completely ruptured, and a senior Syrian security official, Gen. Ali Mamluk, even made his first public visit abroad in 2016 since the start of the Syrian war in 2011.
Relations with Turkey have warmed up more recently as relations between Cairo and Ankara have remained at a low ebb since Sisi came to power in 2013 after the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, of whom Ankara has been a staunch supporter.
Source: RES
Source: Kathimerini
Anna White is a journalist at 247 News Reel, where she writes on world news and current events. She is known for her insightful analysis and compelling storytelling. Anna’s articles have been widely read and shared, earning her a reputation as a talented and respected journalist. She delivers in-depth and accurate understanding of the world’s most pressing issues.