While celebrating the 7th anniversary of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s inauguration as the 10th president of Egypt, one couldn’t help but compare the state of turmoil and weakness the country was experiencing by then and the prestigious place it acquires on the world map today.
Aside from the ailing economy due to the drop of state revenues and the decline of foreign currency reserves at the Central Bank, Egypt was in a terrible state of instability as a result of terrorist attacks perpetrated by the remnants and supporters of the Muslim Brothers against state institutions and facilities in retaliation for the revolution the Egyptians had launched in 2013 to put an end to the era of MB president Mohamed Morsi.
Treating the ailing economy and restoring security was not a simple task for President Sisi, given the obvious hostility some regional and world powers showed towards Egypt. The US and several other Western countries continued to launch fierce criticism against June 30 Revolution with hope of pressuring for allowing MBs to return or possibly share power in the country. However, Egyptians under leadership of President Sisi chosen to ignore such calls and criticism and concentrate on building their country. At the same time military and security forces have been waging a fierce war against terrorism.
Sisi’s vision, which proved successful, was to focus on building the country and transforming it into an economic and military power on the one hand, and force the world to show due respect to its people’s decision to end the Islamists rule, which would have changed the identity of this country as a civil state of great civilisation on the other.
A fair look to the innumerable projects implemented throughout this 7-year period would demonstrate that Egypt is on the right track to becoming a major power in the very near future, as many international institutions predicted given the high growth rate Egypt recorded in 2019. Even with the Covid-19 crisis that hit hard the global economy, Egypt was one of few countries that continued to achieve positive growth rate.
On the political level, Egypt reclaimed its place on the world map and maintained its presence in the many regional files. following the so-called Arab Spring, several Arab countries were thrown into chaos and even civil war and their destiny was determined by some regional and world powers with full absence of the Arabs.
This is not the case today. Egypt has played a key role in resolving several regional files like Libya and Sudan. Most recently, it has brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to stop escalation in the Palestinian territories.
Thanks to Egypt, the complicated Libyan conflict is now on the path to diplomatic and political solution rather than military confrontations between the different rivals since Sisi designated Sirte-Jufra red lines.
Egypt has been showing tremendous support to Sudan not only to help it restore stability after toppling Omar Bashir regime but also to receive financial support from the international institutions to rebuild the country’s economy.
When Gaza was subjected to brutal Israeli attack, Egypt was not satisfied with the usual statements of condemnation. Instead, Cairo hastened to broker a ceasefire and announced the allocation of $500 million for the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza strip. Moreover, Egypt attempted to use this crisis to revive peace talk drive between Israel and the Palestinians with the aim of the creation of a Palestinian State within borders of June 4, 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital. Cairo is currently hosting reconciliation talks between the Palestinian factions to unite their ranks and hold elections to allow the Palestinians choose their representatives in this important stage.
Along the last seven years, Egypt has managed to bolster its relations with different world powers on basis of mutual respect without interference in domestic affairs of each other.
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