United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres began a visit to Cairo on Saturday, hoping that it will contribute to resolving the region's crises, as he prepares the papers for his departure soon after years full of challenges, especially the Gaza war.
The visit included meetings with Egyptian officials and a visit to the Arab League “as part of an international movement searching for a solution to the region’s crises based on the importance of Egypt’s role, status and communications,” according to estimates by former Assistant Foreign Minister and member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Rakha Ahmed Hassan, in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat.
Guterres will officially leave his position on December 31, 2026, after serving two consecutive terms of 5 years each, the first of which began in January 2017... The new tenth Secretary-General of the organization will officially assume his duties on January 1, 2027.
Guterres said through his account on the “X” platform, on Saturday: “I have just arrived in Egypt, and in light of the escalation of conflicts, I bring with me a message that we need to stop the expansion of the war, protect civilians, and create the political space for diplomacy and peace.”
He added: “We must address the inequalities that divide societies, and stop conflicts that multiply human suffering and push a world already suffering from inequality into further division.”
Regarding the reason for his visit to Egypt, Guterres said in a press conference, Thursday, in New York, that “Egypt is an important country in any perspective for resolving the crisis in the Middle East, especially in the field of defending the rights of the Palestinian people,” criticizing what Israel is doing in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, according to what was reported by the international news website “United Nations News.”
He pointed out that “Egypt is also one of the mediators for resolving the conflict that broke out between the United States and Iran,” noting that “he will also discuss with Egyptian officials the situation in neighboring countries, including Sudan and Libya,” and affirmed his confidence that the visit “will be very fruitful.”
Guterres' visit coincided with United Nations Day, corresponding to October 24, the anniversary of the entry into force of the international organization's Charter, and he will participate in activities commemorating that anniversary in Cairo, meeting with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Foreign Minister Badr Abdel-Aty, and also holding a meeting with Nabil Fahmy, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States.
The ongoing talks in Ankara between representatives of the two main military forces in eastern and western Libya are testing opportunities for “unifying the army,” amid reports of discrepancies regarding “the nature and limits of the proposed arrangements, and disagreements within the Presidential Council regarding the powers to manage this file.”
The talks, which began (Friday) between the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Defense in the “Interim” Government of National Unity, Abdul Salam Al-Zoubi, and the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the National Army, Lieutenant General Saddam Haftar, open a new path in attempts to overcome the military division, amid Turkish moves to bring the military institutions in the East and West closer together, and an American initiative led by President Donald Trump’s advisor for Arab and African affairs, Massad Boulos, to rearrange the executive authority in the country.
Since Thursday, political and media circles in Algeria have been circulating news about the Algerian Parliament’s readiness to grant President Abdelmadjid Tebboune a mandate, in his capacity as Minister of Defense, allowing the sending of army units to Niger, as part of a potential military move targeting armed groups suspected of seeking to overthrow the country’s president, Abderrahmane Tiani, as this may pose a threat to Algerian national security, in light of the border extending for thousands of kilometers, which connects Algeria to its neighbors in the Sahel region.
According to parliamentary sources, the two meetings will be devoted to granting the army a mandate allowing it to intervene outside Algerian territory, in implementation of the second paragraph of Article 91 of the Algerian Constitution, which stipulates that the President of the Republic has the authority to make the decision “to send units of the People’s National Army abroad, after the approval of a two-thirds majority of the members of each of the two chambers of Parliament.”
