Assassination plot reported against Egypt’s President Sissi

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi reportedly canceled a visit to Mauritania, where an Arab League summit starts Monday, due to “credible information” of a plot to assassinate him in Nouakchott, the nation’s capital.

Egypt’s delegation at the summit is instead being headed by Prime Minister Ismail Sherif.

A presidential statement gave no reason for Sissi’s cancellation but the Egyptian press carried unconfirmed reports of a possible planned attempt on Sissi’s life during the gathering in the Mauritanian capital.

In a statement, presidential spokesperson Alaa Youssef denied that Sissi canceled the trip out of security fears but did not give a reason for the cancellation.

The private-owned Al-Masry al-Youm daily reported that the president’s office received “credible information” about the plot and based on it, the president decided not to go.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu-Zeid declined to comment on the reports.

The two-day Arab League summit is focusing on ways of defeating terrorism, the rise of jihadism in the region and the deadlocked Palestinian-Israeli peace process.