Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Wednesday called off a scheduled meeting with US President Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner in Cairo to discuss the peace in the Middle East. But President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would meet the US delegation led by Kushner later in the day, al-Sisi’s office told Reuters.
The decision was made, and a copy of Shoukry’s schedule sent out to journalists showed that the meeting canceled right after the United States deny Egypt $95.7 million in aid and to hold off a further $195 million because of its failure to make progress on respecting human rights and democratic norms.
The foreign ministry said in a statement that “Egypt sees this measure as reflecting a poor judgment of the strategic relationship that ties the two countries over long decades and as adopting a view that lacks an accurate understanding of the importance of supporting Egypt’s stability.”
According to the statement, it could have “negative implications” on achieving common goals and interests between the two countries.
A US embassy official in Cairo said Kushner’s meeting with Shoukry had never been set in stone because “the schedule was never fixed,” Reuters reports.
