Russia’s willingness to support the efforts of the UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for Cyprus, Maria Ángela Holguín Cuéjar, to resume…
Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, is visiting Syria and Turkey, two countries with which Cairo has had frosty diplomatic relations for a decade.
This visit “is a message of solidarity from Egypt to these two sister countries after the February 6 earthquake” that killed nearly 46,000 people in Turkey and Syria, the Egyptian Ministry said in a statement. Shoukry’s visit to Damascus will be the first by an Egyptian Foreign Minister since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
In the wake of the devastating earthquakes, Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, had called his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad; an unprecedented conversation between the two heads of state.
Sisi then called Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his former arch-rival, with whom he had exchanged his first handshake in November at the World Cup in Qatar. The heads of Egyptian and Syrian diplomacy also spoke on the phone.
Assad has been isolated diplomatically, particularly from the Arab scene – Syria is still suspended from the Cairo-based Arab League – since he began to crack down on a popular uprising that broke out in 2011 and turned into a civil war.
Yet after the earthquake devastated Syria and Turkey, Arab countries resumed contacts and sent aid to Damascus, which could take advantage of the tragedy to break out of its diplomatic isolation, analysts say.
Today Assad received a delegation of heads of Arab parliaments. Among them was Egyptian parliament speaker, Hanafi el-Gabali, described by Egyptian state media as “the highest Egyptian leader to be welcomed to Damascus” in more than a decade.
Relations between Cairo and Damascus have never been completely severed and the top Syrian security official, General Ali Mamluk, even made his first public visit abroad in 2016 since the start of the Syrian war in 2011. However, there’s been a rapprochement with Turkey very recently, as relations between Cairo and Ankara have remained at a low since Sisi came to power in 2013 after the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi – of whom Ankara was a staunch supporter.
Source: AMNA
Also read: Armenia – Turkey | Earthquake “opens” borders after 35 years
READ MORE
Turkey | Severes trade relations with Israel
Turkey suspended all trade with Israel as of yesterday, Thursday, Bloomberg reported, citing two Turkish officials.
USA | New initiative in Congress for complete lift of arms embargo in Cyprus
The complete lift of the arms embargo on the Republic of Cyprus and the abolition of its annual renewal is provided for in a bill…
Cyprus Issue | Russia’s will to help UN efforts
Russia’s willingness to support the efforts of the UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for Cyprus, Maria Ángela Holguín Cuéjar, to resume…
Ukraine | New spokeswoman for Foreign Ministry looks real…but she’s not
The new spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was presented by Ukraine… an AI-generated person. That is Victoria Shi.
HNDGS | Bilateral joint training between Greece and Poland – Photos
The bilateral joint training between the Armed Forces of Greece and Poland, in the wider area of Attica, was completed on Thursday…
Turkey | Severes trade relations with Israel
Turkey suspended all trade with Israel as of yesterday, Thursday, Bloomberg reported, citing two Turkish officials.
USA | New initiative in Congress for complete lift of arms embargo in Cyprus
The complete lift of the arms embargo on the Republic of Cyprus and the abolition of its annual renewal is provided for in a bill…
Sielman | Contract for support of the HAWK anti-aircraft system
The US Department of Defence has awarded a $49.9 million contract modification to Greek company Sielman S.A. to provide diagnostic and…