President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi held on Saturday a joint press conference after they met at the presidential palace in Heliopolis.
During the conference, Renzi, who is the head of the European Union, said neither the union or Italy could help the Middle East without Egypt’s role, adding that confrontation of terrorism cannot take place without Egypt.
Meanwhile, Sisi described the Egyptian-Italian ties as strong, saying that Italy is the first European trade partner and the second in the world. He said that their meeting tackled the developments of situations in Gaza and stressed their similar views concerning the Egyptian initiative on ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
Regarding the situation in Libya, Sisi stressed the necessity to stop mutual violence between Libyan militias.
“Egypt is in real war. A war of existence. What is coming needs sacrifice. We will not get safety or complete stability in a day and night, but through a strategy that guarantees the economic side as well as a unity of efforts,” he said.
Sisi received on Saturday Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at presidential palace in Heliopolis.
Renzi came from Rome for a couple of hours visit to Egypt. He was received by his Egyptian counterpart Ibrahim Mehleb and members of the Italian embassy.
The meeting with Sisi tackled several regional issues of joint interest, methods of expanding bilateral cooperation as well as support of bilateral ties.
Renzi expressed in a meeting for the ruling Democratic Party in Italy few days ago support toward the Egyptian initiative over ceasefire between Palestinians and Israelis in Gaza.
Edited translation from MENA and Al-Masry Al-Youm
