Egypt leader voices support for Syrian president’s military

In comments likely to draw Saudi ire, Sissi says Assad regime forces can best restore stability to war-torn country

By AP and ToI Staff 23 November 2016, 1:59 pm

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Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (R) welcomes his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi upon his arrival at the Belem monastery on the beginning of a state visit in Lisbon, on November 21, 2016. (AFP PHOTO/JOSE MANUEL RIBEIRO)

Egypt’s president has expressed support for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s military in remarks likely to irk Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab allies who back Syrian rebels in the civil war.

Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in an interview with the Portuguese TV network RTP that Syrian government forces are best positioned to combat terrorism and restore stability in the war-torn nation.

Asked if he’d send Egyptian peacekeepers to Syria under a peace deal, Sissi said that “it is better that the national army take responsibility” and that his priority was to “support the national army” of Syria.

Cairo and Riyadh are at odds over the war in Syria. Egypt angered its top financial backer last month when it backed Russian and French draft resolutions on Syria at the UN Security Council, prompting Saudi Arabia to suspend indefinitely all fuel shipments to the country, greatly increasing the financial pressure on Egypt’s fragile economy.

Saudi Arabia has been one of the primary backers of the rebel opposition since the Syrian civil war began in 2011 and has made Assad’s removal a key plank of its foreign policy, as he is a key ally of the Saudi’s regional rival Iran.