Egypt FM to visit Washington on Sunday

WASHINGTON: Diplomatic and US sources told Arab News that Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will be making his first official visit to Washington to meet with the Donald Trump administration this weekend.
Sources said that Shoukry will arrive in Washington on Sunday, and the visit is expected to last several days during which he will meet his US counterpart Rex Tillerson and senior Trump officials in the White House.
On the agenda will be the ongoing discussions about a potential state visit of Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi to the US in “the near future.”
US sources told Arab News that while the Egyptian president’s visit was expected to take place in early March, “there is no date as of now, and it could be delayed.”
Shoukry is also expected to discuss US-Egyptian relations, counterterrorism and efforts to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Trump is thought to have good relations with El-Sisi who was the first leader to call the US president — on his cellphone — following his campaign win on Nov. 9. The two leaders have also met last September in New York on the margins of UN General Assembly meetings, and signaled shared emphasis on prioritizing security and stability in Egypt and the region.
Cairo has been eagerly following the debate on a potential Trump executive order that would designate the Muslim Brotherhood a “foreign terrorist organization.” Egypt took that step in December 2013, and has been actively pushing for a harder line from the West toward the group.
Shoukry’s trip is the first for him since Trump took office on Jan. 20, but he had visited Washington last December and met with Vice President Mike Pence as well as members of Congress.
The US gives Egypt an average of $1.5 billion in military and economic aid every year.