Egyptian Speaker of the House Ali Abdul Aal expressed discontent over the decision of the Italian parliament to halt the supply of spare parts of warplanes to Egypt, expressing hopes that the crisis will resolve and positive bilateral relations will resume between the two states.
The Italian parliament’s decision comes as an escalation from Italy against Egypt for the murder of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, which remains unresolved five months after his body was found left on Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road.
“The Italian parliament took this step as Egypt faces a war against terrorism. It is unnecessary in light of the cooperation and communication between the two countries’ judicial authorities in the Regeni case,” Abdul Aal said in a Thursday statement.
Despite claiming that he wanted the crisis over, Abdul Aal warned of the negative impacts the decision will have on the relationship between the Egyptian and Italian parliaments.
This further contradicts previous statements made by Egyptian MPs following their visit to the Italian parliament, which claimed the meeting with Italian counterparts was successful.
Italy accused Egypt failing to cooperate in the investigations. Following controversy sparked by the murder case, the “Regeni amendment” was adopted last week by the Italian senate and parliament. It supported halting the supply of spare parts of F-16 fighter jets to Egypt.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry threatened to “take similar measures,” without further elaboration.
The case has become a source of increasing tension between Egypt and Italy, leading to Italy recalling its ambassador in Cairo.
In the past months, several meetings between Egyptian and Italian prosecutors reportedly took place, but to date, there has been no progress in the investigations or announcements made regarding the details of Regeni’s murder and its perpetrators.
