USA
U.S. President Donald Trump told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday that he strongly backs Sisi’s leadership and that they would work together to fight Islamic militants.
“I just want to let everybody know in case there was any doubt that we are very much behind President Sisi. He’s done a fantastic job in a very difficult situation. We are very much behind Egypt and the people of Egypt,” Trump said in an Oval Office meeting with the Egyptian leader.
The trip is Sisi’s first White House visit since being elected president in 2014 as former U.S. President Barack Obama had never extended an invitation.
Sisi was elected a year after leading the military’s ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood’s president Mohamed Mursi after mass protests.
Egypt has long been one of Washington’s closest allies in the Middle East, receiving $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid annually. The country is fighting an Islamist insurgency in Sinai, and hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police have been killed fighting insurgents.
Go to video
Burkina Faso Suspends BBC and Voice of America
01:29
Egypt rejects displacement of Palestinians into Sinai or any other place- President El-Sissi
01:13
Arab League deplores US veto denying Palestine full UN membership
01:01
Israel-Hamas war: Humanitarian aid parachuted into northern Gaza
01:01
Protests against U.S. military presence in Niger continue
01:45
Black Chicagoans feel left behind as millions marshaled for migrant crisis