France’s Macron in Egypt to meet Sisi
French President Emmanuel Macron and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi pictured before their talks in Cairo
Cairo – French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Cairo on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent reported, for talks with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the latest leg of a whistlestop crisis tour.
On Tuesday Macron was in Israel where he voiced support for its retaliation against Hamas after gunmen from the Islamist group unleashed the deadliest attack on Israel in its history on October 7.
Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
In relentless Israeli bombing since, more than 6,500 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian territory’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.
Macron on Tuesday also visited the occupied West Bank for talks with Mahmud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority.
In Amman, he met King Abdullah II, who stressed that “stopping the war on Gaza is an absolute necessity, and the world must move immediately in this direction”, a Jordanian royal court statement said.
Arab leaders have pushed for a ceasefire and a return to a political process, echoing wider warnings of a potential regional spillover of the Israel-Hamas war.
King Abdullah warned against “the continuation of the war on the Gaza Strip, which might lead to an explosion in the situation in the region”.
Egypt and Jordan were the first two Arab states to forge relations with Israel, in 1979 and 1994 respectively, and have since played key mediator roles.
Cairo has been one of the main brokers in efforts to secure the release of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Before meeting Macron, Sisi inspected Egyptian troops and spoke in a televised address of “patience” and “wisdom”.
“You must always be ready,” he told them, three days after an Egyptian border watchtower was hit and guards were wounded by accidental Israeli shelling.
He said Egypt was doing “all it can” to push for de-escalation and a ceasefire, as well as to “support civilians in Gaza” by securing aid through the Rafah border crossing, the only passage in and out of the territory not controlled by Israel.
Sisi said the military display was originally planned for the 50th anniversary of the “glorious victory” of October 6, 1973 — the date of a surprise attack that led to Egypt regaining control of the Sinai Peninsula from Israel.