Egypt denies FM watched Euro final with Netanyahu

Egyptian officials have resorted to denial after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was joined by Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in al-Quds (Jerusalem) to watch the Euro 2016 soccer final.

The news has outraged many Egyptians, sparking a wave of criticism and forcing Egyptian Foreign Ministry to deny that the pair watched the game. 

Ahmed Aby Zayed, a spokesman for Egyptian Foreign Ministry, said on Wednesday that Shoukry and Netanyahu had only stumbled across the match being played on a TV screen at Netanyahu’s house.

Shoukry was on an official visit to Israel, the first by a top Egyptian government official for a decade, to discuss a number of issues, including the resumption of “peace” talks with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu’s office had posted a photo of the two looking at a television screen broadcasting the Portugal-France final game on Sunday, which Portugal won 1-0.

“This evening my wife Sara and I hosted Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in our home in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu posted on Facebook. “He arrived today for a visit to Israel. When our meeting ended, we had time to watch the Euro 2016 final.”

According to Aby Zayed, “Netanyahu brought a cameraman to record everything that was happening." 

"The Egyptian foreign minister doesn’t watch soccer games during a formal and important visit such as this,” he added.

Imad ad-Din Hussein, an editor from the Egyptian daily newspaper al-Shorouk, condemned the shared moment between Netanyahu and Shoukry.

Hussein said he felt “shame, sorrow and a sense of defeatism and everything that could be used to describe frustration and pain” upon seeing the photograph. 

“I would understand if our foreign minister would watch a game, a movie or a play with an Arab official, who is a friend. But not an Israeli official.” This “dastardly” regime “is the main reason for most disasters in Egypt,” he said.

Relations between Egypt and the Israeli regime have been warming since Abdel Fattah el-Sisi — who spearheaded former President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster — took power as the president of the North African country in 2014.

Shoukry reportedly visited Israel amid preparations for an unprecedented trip by Netanyahu to Egypt for talks with Sisi later this year.

According to a report on Israel's Channel 2, one of the reasons Netanyahu is hoping to schedule a meeting with Sisi before the end of the year is to outflank France's plans to hold a summit on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu opposes the plan, saying he prefers a regional approach to new efforts, with Egypt in a central role.

Egypt is contributing to an Israeli siege through denying Gazans their only passage to the outside world via the Rafah border crossing.

The Egyptian government has been destroying or flooding underground tunnels that Gazans use to ship food, construction material and other basic needs in the face of the Israeli blockade. 

Egypt sent an ambassador to Tel Aviv in January. Hazem Khairat was the first residing Egyptian ambassador in Tel Aviv since Morsi recalled Cairo’s previous ambassador to Israel in November 2012.

The Israeli regime also opened its embassy in Cairo in September 2015 after a four-year closure.

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