CAIRO (AP) – Authorities in Egypt are pulling out all the stops to ensure that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s visit to New York for the U.N. General Assembly is a diplomatic success despite growing criticism of the country’s human rights record under his rule.
El-Sissi flew to New York on Sunday to attend the General Assembly along with some two dozen loyal lawmakers and media figures who will seek to improve the country’s image during the four-day visit.
Parliamentarian Nashwa el-Deeb told reporters she and others would be meeting with U.S. officials and congressmen to redress the “wrong perceptions and positions” about Egypt. Another lawmaker, Tareq Radwan, said they would support the president as a “symbol of Egypt.”
Some of the president’s previous visits in the West have been marred by protests or assaults on accompanying journalists by supporters of Mohammed Morsi, the Islamist president whose 2013 military ouster was led by el-Sissi.
Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic Church, a staunch ally of el-Sissi, has dispatched senior clerics to exhort followers there to rally in support of him upon his arrival later Sunday and at the U.N. headquarters when he addresses the General Assembly later this week.