Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will not travel to Washington for talks at the White House if the agenda includes US President Donald Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza, two Egyptian security sources said.
In a call between Trump and Sisi on 1 February, the US president extended an open invitation to Sisi to visit the White House, the Egyptian presidency previously said. No date has been set for any such visit, a US official said.
The Egyptian presidency and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump has infuriated the Arab world with a plan to permanently displace the population of more than 2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, claim US control of Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. He has demanded Egypt and Jordan take in the Palestinians who would be expelled.
He discussed the plan during a visit by Jordanian King Abdullah to the White House on Tuesday, where the monarch appeared uncomfortable.
Egypt, one of the largest recipients of US military aid, shares a border with the Gaza Strip. Sisi has repeatedly said that Egypt would never participate in a large displacement of Palestinians across the border.
(Reuters)
Egyptian officials have described US ties as ‘the most strained in three decades’ [Getty]
