FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 9, 2014

President El Sisi Meets Norway’s Foreign Minister

Today, at the Ittihadia Palace, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi met with Norway’s Foreign Minister Børge Brende. The meeting was also attended by Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Norway’s Ambassador to Egypt Tor Wennesland, and Norway’s Middle East Envoy Jon Hanssen Bauer.

Spokesman for the Presidency Ambassador Ehab Badawy stated that the Norwegian Minister began the meeting by hailing Egypt’s relentless efforts to reach a ceasefire and bring about a truce in Gaza. He noted that such a truce would not have been possible without Egypt’s role.

The meeting reviewed ongoing preparations for the Conference for Gaza’s reconstruction, which will be held in Egypt and co-sponsored by Egypt and Norway. President El Sisi underscored the close link between reconstruction efforts and the attainment of a final settlement that would prevent the recurrence of such a conflict and its devastating impact on cities and infrastructure; a view that was shared by Brende. The Norwegian official asserted the importance of building on Egyptian efforts to resume negotiations in order to reach a final settlement.

The meeting reviewed the current situation in Iraq, Syria and Libya. President El Sisi reiterated that the failure to reach a settlement to the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict has created an environment conducive to terrorism and extremism. This lends added importance to reaching a settlement in order to prevent the exacerbation of the threat of terrorism and its proliferation to other countries in the region, and from there to European countries which are not immune from such risks.