The planned visit of Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty to Damascus, which was original scheduled for next week, has been postponed, to ’s Arabic sister outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Sunday.
The delay has raised questions among Egyptians about the Egyptian regime’s stance on Syria following a phone call last Tuesday between Abdelatty and his counterpart in Syria’s transitional government, Asaad Al-Shibani.
This comes in the wake of an intense media campaign within Egypt over the last six weeks, continuing to call Ahmed al-Sharaa by his now discarded nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, labelling his organisation Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as terrorists and emphasising that Egypt does not engage with terrorism or armed groups.
This has been in stark contrast to many other regional countries that have reached out to al-Sharaa and the Syria’s transitional government.
For weeks, Egyptian state-controlled media, particularly outlets linked to United Media Services, have waged what some have called a propaganda campaign aimed at tarnishing the image of al-Sharaa and HTS.
The media outlets have adopted a strict anti-HTS tone, levelling direct accusations of terrorism and issuing repeated warnings against any form of engagement with the group or any affiliated groups. The message has been clear—Egypt, as a major power, does not negotiate with “terrorists”.
However, Tuesday’s phone call between Abdelatty and Al-Shibani, was seen as a softening of Egypt’s stance towards the Islamist-leaning transitional government in Syria.
Now, following the postponement, it seems no shift has occurred and the phone call was merely Egypt opening up a line of communication with Syria’s new government.
In an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, former Egyptian Deputy Foreign Minister Ambassador Abdullah Al-Ashaal described Abdelatty’s move as “highly significant”, but clarified that it “does not imply recognition of the new Syrian government.”
Al-Ashaal explained that the decision reflects “pragmatic engagement with the reality on the ground in Syria without signalling any change in Egypt’s stance on the Syrian crisis.”
Since enacting a coup against the democratically-elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, the regime of Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has brutally cracked down on all opponents of military rule, particularly Islamists.
In contrast to Morsi, who supported Syria’s rebel uprising, Sisi supported the now fallen regime of Bashar al-Assad.
It is believed that Sisi's hostile stance towards Syria's provisional government is due to his own fear of stoking potential opposition to his own brutal rule over the Arabic-speaking world's largest country. Following the fall of Assad to rebel forces, Egyptian authorities have banned Syrian nationals from entering Egypt from anywhere in the world, except those holding temporary residency permits.
HTS is listed as a terrorist organisation by multiple countries such as the US, EU members states, Turkey and Egypt. However, the group has never conducted any military attack outside of Syria and has long abandoned its previous links to Al-Qaeda.
In recent weeks, Western countries and regional powers in MENA have softened their stance towards HTS and Ahmed al-Sharaa, with most accepting that the group will play a major role in post-Assad Syria.