DUBLIN: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met his Irish counterpart Michael Higgins and prime minister Simon Harris Wednesday for talks on the war in Gaza and boosting bilateral ties.
The two heads of state discussed the Middle East situation, including the political upheaval in Syria, according to a statement from Higgins’s office.
“The outrageous suffering in the absence of a ceasefire in Gaza was the central part of their discussion,” the statement added.
There had also been “agreement on the need to expand international recognition of the Palestinian state,” said Egyptian presidential spokesman Mohamed Al-Shenawy.
Ireland is among several European countries which in May formally recognized the State of Palestine, drawing anger from Israel.
El-Sisi praised Dublin’s “courageous positions in support of the Palestinian cause,” Shenawy added in a statement.
Eight Gazan children and their families, currently in Cairo, will soon be medically evacuated to Ireland, the Irish statement said.
El-Sisi later held a working lunch with Harris, who said before the meeting that he would raise the case of an Irish mother whose children have been kept by their father in Egypt since 2022.
The Dublin visit was the final leg of a European tour by El-Sisi that included stops in Norway and Denmark.
It marked the first trip to Ireland by an Egyptian president since Hosni Mubarak visited in 2006.
Egypt’s El-Sisi discusses Gaza ‘suffering’ on Dublin visit
https://arab.news/nydws
Egypt’s El-Sisi discusses Gaza ‘suffering’ on Dublin visit
- El-Sisi praised Dublin’s “courageous positions" in support of the Palestinian cause
Bangladesh arrests journalist for ‘anti-state activities’
DHAKA: Bangladesh police on Monday said they had arrested a veteran journalist for alleged “anti-state activities,” accused of promoting the banned party of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
The arrest, which comes ahead of key elections in February, the first vote since the student-led uprising last year that overthrew the autocratic government of Hasina and her Awami League, sparked concerns from a key rights group.
Anis Alamgir was arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act along with three others, accused of spreading propaganda in talk shows and social media posts, and conspiring to rehabilitate the Awami League.
The interim government banned Hasina’s Awami League in May under amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act — a move Human Rights Watch condemned as “draconian.”
“Anis Alamgir has been arrested on accusations of conspiring against the state,” said Kazi Mohammad Rafiq, officer-in-charge of Uttara West police station in the capital Dhaka.
Three others were named in police documents alongside Alamgir, including actress Meher Afroz Shaon.
Rights organization Ain o Salish Kendra condemned the arrest.
“Using a law, originally enacted to prevent terrorist activities, against freedom of expression and journalism is against the fundamental principles of a democratic state,” it said in a statement.
“It’s an attack on freedom of expression.”
Press freedom in Bangladesh has long been under threat, and Hasina’s tenure was marked as one of the worst periods for media freedom in the South Asian nation.
Bangladesh ranks 149 out of 180 countries for press freedom in 2025, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), up from 165 a year before.
But RSF also notes that over 130 journalists were subjected to “unfounded judicial proceedings” and five detained, in the “political purge that followed the fall of Sheikh Hasina.”
Those listed as detained pending trial are Ekattor TV’s Farzana Rupa, Shakil Ahmad and Mozammel Babu, as well as freelancer Shahriar Kabir and Shyamal Dutta, editor of Bhorer Kagoj newspaper.
