UNITED NATIONS— Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in an interview that the Mideast region needs to cooperate to defeat a worsening terrorist threat that has led to a “ferocious war” in Egypt and created the danger of some countries “sliding into failure.”
In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press Saturday night, el-Sissi also said that Syria should not be divided after its civil war, that the Egyptian military needs to be “augmented” to defeat terrorists fighting in the Sinai and Western Desert, and that efforts should be renewed to solve the Palestinian issue and expand Egypt’s nearly 40-year-peace with Israel to include more Arab countries.
Resolving the Palestinian question, he said, could “change the face of the region and ... bring about enormous improvement to the situation. ... I’m optimistic by nature and I say that there is a great opportunity.”
The 60-year-old former military chief, who ran for president and assumed office in 2014 after the army ousted his predecessor Mohammed Morsi the year before, spoke with AP at a New York hotel on Saturday night after he addressed a U.N. summit that adopted new development goals for the next 15 years. He will also attend the annual ministerial meeting of the General Assembly at U.N. headquarters that begins Monday.
