 | ||
Egypt–Syria relations are foreign relations between Egypt and Syria. Egypt has an embassy in Damascus. Syria has an embassy in Cairo. Both countries were members of the Arab League, but as of November 2011, Syria has been suspended from the League due to its failure to follow up with an agreement concerning its current civil war. Relations were generally well under the reign of Hosni Mubarak, but since has been strained after the election of hard line Mohamed Morsi. Egypt closed down its embassy in Damascus in 2011. However, relations were restored and the embassies reopened in both Egypt and Syria after the military coup in Egypt that toppled Morsi.
Contents
Mubarak Era
Egypt–Syria relations had generally been peaceful during the rule of Hosni Mubarak. They were once strained under the leadership of Anwar al-Sadat after he made a peace deal with Israel in 1967. Hafez al-Assad severed all relations with Egypt after the signing of the peace deal, and were not re-established until 2005, when Egypt once again enjoyed warm relations with Syria under the rule of Bashar al-Assad.
Post-Revolution Egypt
However, after the Arab Spring and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, relations became extremely strained. The Muslim Brotherhood is a banned organisation in Syria and its membership is a capital offence in Syria. Egypt severed all relations with the Syrian Arab Republic in 2011, after Syrian security forces crackdown on civilians.
Egypt has since supported the Syrian opposition and has called on Assad to step down. This is mainly due to the rule of Sunni hardliners and Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Egypt who have opposed the Shi'ite-dominated government. On June 15, 2013, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi ordered the closing of the Syrian Embassy in Cairo and a no-fly zone over Syria. However, diplomatic relations were restored and the embassies reopened after Morsi regime was deposed just weeks later by current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. In July 2013, the two countries agreed to reopen the Egyptian consulate in Damascus and the Syrian consulate in Cairo.
Despite the restoration of diplomatic ties, relations between Assad's Syria and Sisi's Egypt have been lukewarm. In July 2015, President Sisi told a delegation of Lebanese diplomats to prepare for the Assad regime's imminent collapse.
In late November 2016, some Arab media outlets reported Egyptian pilots arrived in mid-November to Syria to help the Syrian government in its fight against the Islamic State and Al Nusra front. This came after Sisi publicly stated he supports the Syrian military in the civil war in Syria. However, several days later, Egypt officially denied it has a military presence in Syria.