Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi called his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday February 7 after the earthquake which killed more than 5,000 people in Turkey and Syria, according to the two presidencies, an unprecedented conversation between the two heads of State.
Abdel Fattah al-Sissi then called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his former great enemy with whom he had exchanged his very first handshake in November at the World Cup, according to his office.
Mutual condolences
"
President Sisi called President Assad
" and "
presented his condolences
to him ", claiming "
to have ordered to bring all possible humanitarian aid to Syria
", indicated Ahmed Fahmy, the spokesman of Abdel Fattah al -Sissi, in a press release.
Read alsoAny rapprochement with Ankara must lead to the end of the Turkish “occupation” in Syria, according to Bashar el-Assad
The heads of Egyptian and Syrian diplomacy met Monday - February, Cairo also promising "
emergency humanitarian aid
" without giving details.
For its part, the Syrian presidency assures that "
President Assad thanked Egypt for this position which reflects the fraternal relations between the two countries and the two brotherly peoples
".
A first
It is the first time that the two presidents have called each other since the election of Abdel Fattah al-Sissi in 2014, says the Egyptian state daily Al-Ahram, while Bashar al-Assad remains diplomatically isolated.
However, relations have never been severed between Cairo and Damascus despite the war in Syria, sparked by the crackdown on anti-regime protests in 2011 in the wake of the Arab Spring that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
In 2016, Cairo had supported a Russian resolution on Syria at the UN, jeopardizing its relations with its great Saudi ally.
Shortly after, the top official of the Syrian security services, General Ali Mamlouk, made a surprise visit to Cairo, the first made public abroad since the start of the war in Syria in 2011. He then returned to Cairo in 2018. Egypt has always pleaded for "
a political solution
" in Syria, without ever mentioning the fate of Bashar al-Assad, whose departure from power has long been a sine qua non for several Arab countries.
Relations with Turkey have only warmed up very recently, as Cairo and Ankara have been cold since Mr. Sisi came to power in 2013, after the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.