By Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban
President Donald Trump of the United States has described his Eygyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi as a ‘great president … doing a great job” in the north African country.
The two leaders met at the White House on Tuesday during an official visit by the Egyptian leader. This trip is his second meeting with Trump in a space of two years.
The main blocs of the meeting was around the issues of the fight against terrorism and the area of trade. Trump said relations between the two nations was at an all-time high.
A core issue that came up was the possibility of Al-Sisi extending his stay in office via constitutional reforms which are currently underway. Trump all but evaded the question stressing how great his counterpart was doing in managing Egypt.
Human rights groups have criticized the Egyptian government’s clampdown on dissent and have tasked lawmakers to take stern action against infractions by the government. Al-Sisi won 2018 polls in what is his second term.
“I think he’s doing a great job. I don’t know about the effort; I can just tell you he’s doing a great job. Great President,” Trump said in response to whether he supported Al-Sisi’s plans to remain in power till 2034.
We have many things to discuss, as you can imagine: military, trade. And I have to say that a lot of progress has been made in a lot of different ways, in terms of terrorism and others things, with Egypt and within Egypt.
It’s really incredible what’s happened, especially in certain respects that we’ve already talked about. But we will be meeting with representatives of the President and of Egypt in a little while.