Al-Sisi admits his Suez project is the same as President Morsi's

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said that the Suez Canal Axis Development Project is the same project that was proposed previously in the era of President Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted by Al-Sisi in a military coup. When first proposed by Morsi, the project met with strong criticism and rumours that resulted in public opinion being against this project.

Speaking at the project’s launch event on Tuesday, Al-Alam Online news website quoted Al-Sisi as saying that: “We did not stand against the Suez Canal project in the past, except for the section related to the new canal, and we did not change anything [from the old project]. We cannot stand against Egypt’s national interest.”

He then added: “We would not change our opinion of this project only because we oppose somebody in power; this way of thinking is inappropriate and we would never harm our country and our people.”

Some Egyptian media outlets had attacked the same project when it was announced by Morsi during his presidency, claiming that it would end Egyptian control of the canal and would contribute to its selling off to foreigners.