Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has canceled a planned February 18 visit to Washington to meet with President Donald Trump. It is being reported Tuesday as an indefinite postponement.
The key factor, which has reportedly brought US-Egypt relations to a low point, is Trump’s ‘takeover’ plan to expel Gazans into Egypt and Jordan. Another factor is Trump’s repeated reference to Sisi as “the general” – which was used publicly when Israel’s PM Netanyahu recently visited the White House.
“Egyptian officials viewed this as dismissive, sources said,” The New Arab reports. And then there was this during Trump’s first term, back in 2019 at a G7 summit:
“Where’s my favorite dictator?” Mr. Trump called out in a voice loud enough to be heard by the small gathering of American and Egyptian officials.
The same report writes of Trump’s controversial Gaza plan, “an Egyptian diplomatic source in Washington said Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had warned US officials and members of Congress that implementing Trump’s relocation plan could lead to a resurgence of radical Islamist groups in the region.”
Jordan is lockstep with Egypt on this. Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday in an awkward meeting which saw the monarch reject Trump’s pressure.
The king tried to preempt further pressure from Trump by pledging to take in 2,000 Palestinian children. Otherwise Jordanian sources have said they would seal the borders and potentially declare war in Israel if a mass ‘cleansing’ campaign ensues.
Hellbound and Down 