Egypt’s Sisi likely to meet Syrian regime’s Assad after Ramadan: report

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi is likely to meet his Syrian counterpart Bashar al Assad at the end of April, Wall Street Journal has reported.

On Saturday, the US newspaper, citing informed sources, said Cairo and Damascus are conducting “advanced discussions” to restore diplomatic ties and to hold a top-level meeting between the two countries.

The Sisi-Assad meeting would possibly take place after the end of the holy month of Ramadan at the end of April, it said.

The date and the place of the meeting were not mentioned and there was no comment from Egyptian or Syrian regime authorities on the report.

On Saturday, the Syrian regime’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad held talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo, the first such visit in more than a decade

During a meeting between Mekdad and his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry, the two sides agreed on intensifying channels of communication between the two countries, according to a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

Mekdad’s visit was the first to Egypt since Syria’s membership in the Cairo-based Arab League was suspended in November 2011 following the regime’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

The Syrian regime exchanged official visits with several Arab countries in recent years amid reports about a possible resumption of the regime’s membership in the Arab League.

Source: TRTworld.com