CAIRO: French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was in Egypt Sunday hoping to ease tensions following the publishing of controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked ire in the Arab world.
Le Drian met with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and will also meet Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Egypt’s highest Muslim authority.
Le Drian’s highly anticipated meeting with Tayeb, head of Al-Azhar — considered the foremost religious institution for Sunni Muslims — will tackle French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s decision in September to reprint the cartoons.
Last month Tayeb denounced remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron of “Islamist separatism” as “racist” and spreading “hate speech.”
“I have emphasised, and emphasize here the deep respect we have for Islam,” said the French minister during a press conference with Shoukry.
“What we are fighting is terrorism, it is the hijacking of religion, it is extremism,” he added, noting he came “to explain, if need be, this fight, and at the same time the fight for respect for the freedom of belief.”
Demonstrations erupted in several Muslim-majority countries after Macron defended the right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, seen by many as insulting and an attack on Islam.
Macron’s remarks came after a suspected extremist decapitated a schoolteacher in a Paris suburb in October after he showed the cartoons to pupils during a lesson on freedom of expression.
El-Sisi himself had weighed in on the controversy last month, saying that “to insult the prophets amounts to underestimating the religious beliefs of many people.”
Drian’s visit also included discussion on Egypt’s conflict-hit western neighbor Libya.
“The developments in recent weeks are going in the right direction,” he said, referring to a cease-fire agreement and negotiations between opposing sides, including the latest round of peace talks between rival administrations held in Morocco.
He said both France and Egypt were on the same page in demanding the immediate withdrawal of foreign mercenaries from Libya and respecting a United Nations arms embargo.
Drian will travel to Morocco for meetings with officials in the kingdom on Monday.
Asked about political prisoners held in Egyptian jails, Shoukry said, “there is no arbitrary detention, there is only detention according to the law.”
France FM in Egypt affirms ‘deep respect for Islam’
https://arab.news/8wb7g
France FM in Egypt affirms ‘deep respect for Islam’
- Le Drian would also meet the grand imam of Al-Azhar
- He ‘will pursue the appeasement process’ started by Macron
Syrian army announces full control on Deir Hafer, Maskanah in Aleppo area
- The command said army forces had also started advancing toward the areas of Maskanah and Dibsi Afnan
ALEPPO: The Syrian army has begun deploying forces in the city of Deir Hafer in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, state media reported on Saturday.
In a statement carried by the Syrian Arab News Agency, the army’s Operations Command announced the “complete establishment of military control” over Deir Hafer, adding that units were working to secure the city and clear it of mines and remnants of war.
The command said army forces had also started advancing toward the areas of Maskanah and Dibsi Afnan.
Later, the Operations Command said its forces had expanded control to an area extending around 10 kilometers east of Deir Hafer.
According to SANA, army units took control of Al-Jarrah Military Airport and secured 14 villages and towns east of the city, while facilitating the withdrawal of more than 200 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces along with their weapons.
The command added that Syrian army units had reached Maskanah city in eastern Aleppo, noting that hundreds of SDF members had surrendered to government forces.
In a subsequent statement, the army announced full control over Maskanah, saying its forces had begun advancing toward the town of Dibsi Afnan.
Later on Saturday, the army command said its forces had entered Dibsi Afnan in the western countryside of Raqqa province.
