Egypt’s Sisi meets with Bill and Hillary Clinton
Egypt’s President Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi met with former U.S. Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger
and Madeleine Albright at his current New York residence on Monday,
where they discussed the current developments in Egypt and the region.
The meeting came shortly
before Sisi met with former US President Bill Clinton and former US
Secretary of State and potential presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Sisi met a group of businessmen of the American
Chamber of Commerce, state-run MENA agency reported, with whom he
reviewed the measures taken by Egypt to stimulate investment in light of
the grand projects currently being executed in the country.
The
president also met with members of the Business Council for
International Understanding (BCIU), which was established as a White
House initiative under former U.S. President Eisenhower in 1995 to
promote “dialogue and alliances between world businesses and political
leaders.”
Sisi embarked on a trip
to the U.S. on Sunday, his first since he was elected president in June,
to represent Egypt in the United Nations’ General Assembly’s 69th
session. Sisi will also attend the UN Climate Summit, scheduled for
September 23 in New York.
The United States
Department of State invited Egypt’s president to meet with U.S.
President Barack Obama during the former’s visit to New York, a
presidency source told Aswat Masriya.
The source, who
preferred to remain anonymous, said that the presidents’ meeting is
expected to be held on Thursday. He added that Sisi agreed to the
meeting to “present Egypt’s stance toward terrorism.”
Sisi would stress on the
importance of combating terrorism in general and not only Islamic State
fighters in Iraq, the source said.
The Egyptian president
will also deliver a speech in the General Assembly’s 69th session on
Thursday. Combating terrorism and extremism will be an integral part of
Sisi’s speech, reported state-run news agency MENA.
Egypt was part of the
talks hosted by Saudi Arabia in Jeddah ten days ago to discuss means of
combating extremist groups within the region.
The talks, attended by
representatives from the United States as well as Arab and Muslim
countries, granted the support of 10 Arab countries – including Egypt –
to the U.S. in a “coordinated military campaign” against Islamic State
fighters in Iraq.
During a meeting with
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday, Sisi said the newly
formed coalition should fight other militant groups in the region and
not just Islamic State fighters.
Egypt’s relations with
the U.S. have been tense since the military ouster of former Islamist
President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013 at the hands of Sisi.
The U.S. announced
temporarily halting part of its 1.3 billion-dollar military aid to Egypt
last October pending “credible progress toward an inclusive,
democratically elected civilian government through free and fair
elections.”
In January, the U.S.
congress passed a bill resuming the aid in installments and under
certain conditions. U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel confirmed to his
Egyptian counterpart Sedki Sobhi the U.S. plans to deliver 10 Appache
helicopters in support of Egypt’s counter-terrorism efforts, the
Pentagon announced on Saturday.
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