Egypt’s foreign minister Badr Abdelatty held back-to-back talks with his counterparts in the United Arab Emirates and Algeria on Friday in a diplomatic balancing act which comes a day after Algeria cut diplomatic ties with Emirates and closed its airspace to Emirati flights.
The calls signal Cairo’s effort to keep relations close with both Gulf and Arab North neighbors despite the tensions between the two sides that have escalated sharply.
Algeria had declared on September 10 the severing of relations with Abu Dhabi, accusing the UAE of “increasingly provocative or hostile actions” that it said had passed a line no longer “acceptable or tolerated” between sovereign states, a statement published on the state news agency of Algeria. Algiers said it had issued repeated warnings before taking this action.
The UAE’s foreign ministry expressed hope of a temporary rift, saying it wished to preserve what it called the fraternal bond between the two peoples.
Against that backdrop, Abdelatty spoke first with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with the two reviewing recent regional developments as part of what Cairo described as routine coordination between the two countries.
His call with Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf covered different ground, focusing on deepening bilateral cooperation and following up on commitments made during the ninth session of the Egyptian-Algerian Joint Higher Committee, held in Cairo last November. The two ministers also discussed expanding economic and trade ties and identifying new areas of joint work.
Libya featured prominently in the Egypt-Algeria conversation as well, with both sides reaffirming coordination through the trilateral mechanism that brings together Libya’s neighboring states, and stressing their shared support for restoring security and stability in the country.
Neither of Abdelatty’s calls directly referenced the Algeria-UAE rupture, according to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s statements, though the timing places Cairo in a position of engaging both capitals as the diplomatic standoff unfolds.
