Egypt parliament decides not to adopt ‘rough diplomacy’ with Italy
After a two-hour meeting on Monday, an joint Egyptian parliamentary committee said it will refrain from adopting a “confrontational stand” against Italy following the nation’s hostile reaction to Egypt in the aftermath of the killing of Italian student Giulio Regeni in Cairo last January.
Kamal Amer, chairman of the joint committee, said the Monday meeting recommended that the Egyptian government should maintain a kind of “soft diplomacy” in dealing with “the Regeni crisis.”
“In the short term we decided that ‘rough diplomacy’ or ’a confrontational stand’ should be ruled out in favor of adopting soft diplomacy,” said Amer, the former chief of Egyptian military intelligence.
The meeting was attended by Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat, head of the Human Rights Committee, Mohamed Al-Orabi, head of the Foreign Affairs Ccommittee, and Amer, head of the National Security and Defence Committee.
The meeting also included the deputy interior minister, representatives from the interior ministry’s departments of National Security and General Security, representatives from the Justice Ministry, the prosecution general and the intelligence apparatus.
Amer said the participants in the meeting put forward proposals aimed at containing the Regeni crisis.
“They all agreed that these proposals should be based on quiet and soft diplomacy,” said Amer, adding that “it was also agreed that a crisis management group be formed to follow up the developments of the Regeni crisis.”
“The joint parliamentary committee would also become a fact-finding parliamentary committee to be tasked with holding periodical meetings and gathering information from prosecution authorities in charge of investigating the Regeni case,” Amer continued.
Amer disclosed that “parliament will keep in touch with prosecution authorities in charge of investigating the Regeni case to get firsthand official information about it.”
“All authorities entrusted with investigating this case should know that parliament now has a fact-finding committee on the Regeni case and it has the right to get all necessary available and transparent information on it,” said Amer.
Amer also indicated that the committee proposed that Egyptian parliamentary delegations pay visits to European parliaments to discuss the Regeni case.
“We proposed that Egyptian parliamentary delegations visit some European parliaments in Italy, France, England, and Greece,” said Amer. “The fact-finding committee will be also tasked with assuring whether Italy intends to maintain its recent decision not to supply Egypt with spare parts [for] F-16 fighter aircraft.”
Margaret Azer, deputy chairman of the human rights committee, told reporters that the committee asked officials representing the interior ministry questions on the mystery surrounding ‘the liquidation’ of five Egyptians accused of killing Regeni.
Azer, however, said the information available about Regeni in not yet complete. “Most of the information on this case come from unreliable media sources,” said Azer, adding that she advised that statements from Egypt on the Regeni case do not only come in reaction to Western media or Italian authorities.
“This was clear in the reaction to the accusations leveled at the interior ministry, all alleging that its officers had killed Regeni,” said Azer.
On Sunday, Mohamed Al-Orabi, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told a meeting that he advised his Italian counterpart to maintain open dialogue with Egypt over the Regeni crisis rather than opt for escalatory steps.
Al-Orabi indicated that during a visit to Rome this last week, he urged the Italian side to discuss ideas that were ‘out of the box’ and that could unravel the mystery of the Regeni case.
source: Ahram Online
