President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi praised the armed forces and its “martyrs” when he met with leading figures in the military on Friday.
“Those martyrs are the ones who wrote the history of the country and made way for the formation of the modern state,” Al-Sisi said
The president attended Friday prayers in Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi mosque in New Cairo, which were also attended by Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, heads of army departments, as well as other military and civil officials. Several state institutions celebrated the day, praising “the army and its role in protecting the nation”.
The Ministry of Religious Endowments prescribed the weekly Friday sermon for Islamic preachers to follow in the upcoming prayer, entitled “martyrdom and martyrs”, which discussed nationalism and the importance of security.
On Thursday, Al-Sisi attended the final military training exercise of Raad Al-Shamal (North Thunder), held by a military coalition of several Arab countries in Hafr Al-Baten in the northern military district of Saudi Arabia.
The manoeuvres included joint trainings on facing prospective threats in the context of regular and irregular warfare. The presidency spokesperson said 300,000 soldiers from 14 Sunni Muslim countries participated in the drills, which were named for many Islamic leaders..
The Egyptian army participated in the manoeuvres with personnel from the infantry and air forces.
In December 2015, Saudi Arabia announced the formation of a 34-state Islamic military coalition to combat terrorism, which raised questions over its motives and implications regarding the balance of power in the region.
The coalition would confront not only “Islamic State” (IS) but “any terrorist organisation that appears in front of us”, Saudi defence minister and deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman said previously at a press conference in Riyadh.
