US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he had a positive conversation with Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on issues including Gaza, where Washington has proposed displacement of the population.
"My telephone call with President El-Sisi, of Egypt, went very well," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, using another spelling for the Egyptian leader's name.
He said that the two spoke about the "tremendous military progress" by the United States in strikes against Yemen's Huthi insurgents, who have been attacking Red Sea shipping in professed solidarity with the Palestinians.
Trump said, without explanation, that "also discussed was Gaza and possible solutions, military preparedness, etc."
Trump stunned the region in February by proposing the mass displacement of war-ravaged Gaza's population. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced support for the idea and has resumed a blistering military campaign in Gaza, from which Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Egypt, which borders Gaza, came up with its own plan that would finance reconstruction of the territory. The US State Department replied at the time that it did not meet Washington's expectations.
Trump has had close relations with Sisi, famously being reported to have called him "my favorite dictator" during a meeting in 2019.
Egypt has been one of the top recipients of US aid since it became the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel, with Washington brushing aside human rights concerns, including what rights groups say is the detention of tens of thousands of political prisoners under Sisi's rule.
The United States gives more than $1 billion in military assistance a year to Egypt, with Trump exempting it from sweeping cuts in US aid.
AFP
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