U.S. President Donald Trump expressed America’s support for Egypt on Monday in his first meeting with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Today @POTUS welcomes the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, to the White House. pic.twitter.com/dwIZ8V1bOw
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 3, 2017
The Egyptian leader met the president at the White House in his first visit to Washington DC. El-Sisi noted it was also the first visit of any Egyptian leader to the White House in the past eight years.
President Trump was clear about America’s commitment to support Cairo from the outset, calling it an “honor to welcome President Al Sisi of Egypt to the White House as we renew the historic partnership between the U.S. and Egypt.”
In response, El-Sisi told Trump that he would “always have his support and that of the Egyptian people” in his efforts to bring about an “effective strategy for counter-terrorism.”
El-Sisi is facing a major challenge to his Cairo government as he continues to battle terrorists backed by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and various terrorist groups who have a handshake with the Sinai Province branch of the Islamic State terrorist organization in the Sinai Peninsula. Among them is Hamas, the ruling terrorist group in Gaza, spawned by MB and a benefactor of Iran. Hamas also has an operational relationship with the Sinai Province terrorist group as well.
The Egyptian president also underlined his strong support for Trump’s efforts to solve the knotty problem of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which he referred to as the “problem of the century.”
The American president said, “We’ll solve it, we’ll solve it. We will do that together. We’ll fight terrorism and “other things.” We’re gonna be friends for a long, long period of time.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah II is scheduled to meet at the White House with President Trump later in the week.