Egyptian minister may visit Morocco to end diplomatic crisis

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shokri may visit Morocco in a bid to end the diplomatic crisis between the two countries. Speaking to Anadolu News Agency on Friday, an anonymous source said that Shokri authorised Egypt’s ambassador in Rabat to cooperate with Moroccan officials. “If these efforts fail,” added the diplomat, “the foreign minister himself may visit Morocco.”

Television reports in the north-west African state have recently described Egypt’s Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi as a “coup president”; ousted Mohamed Morsi, meanwhile, was called the “legal Egyptian president”. A senior Moroccan diplomat told Anadolu that the TV reports were a response to “accumulated Egyptian defamation” of the government in Rabat. He did not rule out a connection between the Egypt-Algeria rapprochement and the Morocco-Egypt crisis.

In Egypt, meanwhile, a source quoted by Anadolu claimed that the reason for the crisis between Cairo and Rabat is “incitement” by the Muslim Brotherhood ever since Qatar and Egypt made moves to heal the rift between them. The Brotherhood in Egypt, it is alleged, wants Islamist-ruled Morocco to stay clear of Egypt so that its members have a refuge should they lose their current place of exile in the Gulf State.

However, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Sudan denied any contacts between the Egyptian and Moroccan branches of the movement. Speaking to Anadolu from London, Sudan said, “Morocco is similar to other countries such as Brazil, Venezuela, Sweden and Germany, which from time to time describe Al-Sisi as a coup leader who became president through false elections.”