Macron stresses security, not rights, with Sisi
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron lauded deepening security and diplomatic ties with Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi yesterday, adding that he had refused to “give lessons” about human rights during their talks in Paris. The 39-year-old French centrist had faced calls from rights groups to raise torture and political repression in Egypt publicly after the first face-to-face meeting between the pair.
Instead, Macron stressed how Egypt was a vital partner in the fight against Islamic extremism in the Middle East and Europe, as well as key in the search for lasting political solutions in war-wracked Libya and Syria. “The first battle that we have in common is the fight against terrorism,” Macron said during a joint press conference which underlined their common purpose against extremists which have claimed hundreds of victims in both countries.
Macron said he had stated that combating extremism “should be carried out with the respect of the rule of law and human rights,” but declined to criticize Sisi’s record since he seized power in 2013. As French president “I would not accept that another leader gave me lessons about how to govern my country... I believe in the sovereignty of states and we am not here to give lessons without taking account of the context,” Macron explained.
The former investment banker, elected in May, has promised a pragmatic, results-oriented foreign policy, but also one that sees France uphold its historic mission of defending human rights. His approach is in line with other European leaders who see Sisi as a source of stability, but Macron did not go as far as US President Donald Trump who praised the Egyptian for doing a “fantastic job” in April.
Egyptian security services are accused of using torture systematically by human rights groups, while government pressure on the media, NGOs and political opponents is seen as having increased under Sisi. The most populous country in the Middle East is fighting the Egyptian branch of the Islamic State group in the north of the Sinai peninsula and has faced a series of attacks that has affected its vital tourism industry. At least 16 Egyptian police officers were killed at the weekend in an ambush by Islamist fighters in the country’s Western Desert in a rare flare-up outside the Sinai. — AFP