Kerry in Cairo to discuss Palestine, Libya with El Sisi
US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi yesterday on “a range of bilateral and regional issues, including recent developments on Libya and Syria,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said after the meeting, Reuters reported. A US official said “Kerry wanted to explore in more detail a proposal on Tuesday by Sisi to mediate a reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions to pave the way toward a lasting peace accord with the Israelis.”
Apparently, however, Egyptian authorities made clear that reporters “would not be welcome” at the presidential palace, State Department officials told journalists set to make their way to Egypt with Kerry. The move appears to be over “fear we might ask President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi a question or two about the dissidents he has jailed,” according to the New York Times’ David E. Sanger. “Even China’s leaders routinely let the news media pool in, though they do their best to ignore them … Egypt used to do the same — in what now looks, by comparison, like the days of openness when Hosni Mubarak was still president.”