Kerry asserts Egypt's critical role to regional peace

US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed pleasure for his visit to Egypt and his talks with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Foreign minister Sameh Shoukry.

"I’m very grateful to President Sisi and Foreign Minister Shoukry for their welcome and for the serious conversation that we just engaged in," he said in a press release issued by the US Embassy in Cairo.

He said his talks in Cairo were very serious and very constructive way about the challenges that Egypt is facing.

"I want to emphasize that the United States views Egypt as critical to the peace and security of the entire region. We care enormously about succeeding in overcoming the difficult challenges that Egypt faces at this moment, both in terms of security, the challenge of extremists who engage in activities that create instability and attack the peace and security of all citizens everywhere, and also the challenge of an economy that needs to see greater investment, more job creation, and growth," he said.

"The United States wants to help in those endeavors, and in furtherance of that."

He said "will come back with additional thoughts about ways in which we can work together to invigorate the economy, to attract investment, to create jobs, and also ways that we can work together in order to deal with Daesh particularly and to help Egypt in terms of the security concerns that it has today."

Kerry said the talks tackled also the crises in Syria and Libya "where there are real challenges and where Egypt is being enormously helpful."

"We have mutual interests in the security of the region. And we also talked about ways in which we can hopefully resolve some of the differences and questions that have arisen about the internal politics and choices for the people of Egypt."

He hailed Egypt's role as "the historical center of the Arab world."

Source: MENA