CAIRO — US Secretary of Defense James Mattis meets Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and top brass in Cairo on Thursday, pledging support for the American ally on his first regional tour.
The brief visit, with Mattis later setting off to Israel, comes after Sissi hit it off with Trump during a White House meeting earlier this month.
Sissi’s visit marked a shift in relations after Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama had given the Egyptian leader the cold shoulder for leading the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
Egypt’s Minister of Defence Sedki Sobhy welcomes US Defense Secretary James Mattis at the Ministry of Defense in Cairo on April 20, 2017. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool/AFP)
The meeting “addressed aspects of military and security cooperation between the two countries and ways to further enhance them,” Sissi’s office says in a statement.
Sissi tells Mattis he wants to “strengthen the ongoing military cooperation between the two countries,” it says.
Mattis in turn “reiterated the US’s commitment to reinvigorating these relations and broadening prospects for cooperation,” it adds.
Mattis is now flying to Israel on the next leg of his tour, which started in Saudi Arabia.
— AFP
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