Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry held several meetings with his counterparts from a number of countries on the sidelines of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 72), discussing confronting terrorism, bilateral relations, and weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
During his attendance to the Security Council’s meeting on non-proliferation of WMDs Thursday, Shoukry expressed Egypt’s concerns about these weapons, calling for banning this kind of weapons and preventing its proliferation.
He added that WMDs are the most serious danger facing humanity and that the way the Security Council deals with it needs a reform, the foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abou Zaid said in a statement.
“Despite the progress in non-proliferating these weapons, this progress depends on an erroneous image about the strategic balance—and now is the time for us as members of the UN to discuss that,” Shoukry said.
He added that Egypt had expressed its good intentions and joined the non-proliferating agreement because it appreciates the right of life, but the Middle East is one of the prominent examples for the selective standards the council uses in dealing with such threats.
Shoukry also said that Arab states are frustrated due to repeated failure in making the region free of WMDs.
On Friday, Shoukry attended the meeting of the International Coalition against the Islamic State group. During the meeting, the minister asserted the importance of holding the meeting at this time to build on what has been achieved and to work for finding international support for Iraq.
He also stressed that defeating the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq is not the end, but it establishes for a new phase for defeating all terror groups.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Shourky met his Iraqi counterpart, Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, and expressed Egypt’s support for Iraq in its war against terrorism, and Egypt’s readiness to participate in efforts of rebuilding the Iraqi armed forces.
According to the official statement, Al-Jaafari praised the Egyptian-Iraqi bilateral relations, expressing his hope for developing these relations and praising the Egyptian role in supporting Iraq.
On Thursday, Shoukry met at the headquarters of the Egyptian Mission in New York with both Tunisian and Algerian Foreign Ministers Khemaies Jhinaoui and Abdelkader Messahel to discuss means to support the political solution in Libya within the framework of the tripartite coordination mechanism on Libya between Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, on the sidelines of their participation in the meetings of the UNGA 72, according to the foreign ministry’s statement.
During the meeting, the three ministers, backed the United Nations in sponsoring the political solution to the Libyan crisis. They also reviewed the efforts exerted by each country to help our Libyan brothers build national consensus and converge their positions on the pending issues in the political agreement.
Moreover, the Egyptian minister discussed the latest developments in the Libyan crisis with the Head of the Libyan Presidential Council, Fayez Al-Serraj.
Al-Serraj praised the Egyptian role in the crisis, expressing his desire to visit Egypt. Shoukry briefed him on the results of the London meeting regarding Libya.
Furthermore, Shoukry discussed bilateral relations with his counterparts of Pakistan, the Netherlands, Nepal, Cyprus, Norway, and Greece.
He also discussed the suffering of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar with his Bengali counterpart, Abul-Hassan Mahmood Ali, in presence of the Egyptian candidate for leading the UNESCO Mushira Khattab.
