Egypt’s President: we are keen that Syria remains as nation and as state

NEW YORK,(ST)_Egyptian President has asserted his country’s keenness on keeping Syria unified, indicating the need for unifying international efforts to confront terrorism in the region.

Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in an interview with Associated Press on the sidelines of the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Summit: “we are very keen that Syria remains as a nation and as a state and does not divide into smaller states.”

He warned that the collapse of Syria would mean that all its weapons and equipment would fall into the hands “of the terrorists.

” If that happens, the danger will not only hurt Syria but spill over to its neighbors and will pose a serious threat to the rest of the region, and this is what we fear,”el-Sissi added.

On August 25, President Bashar al-Assad told the Lebanese al-Manar Television channel as saying that relations between Syria and Egypt are the ones which achieve balance on the Arab arena … Syria believes that it stands in the same trench with the Egyptian army and with the Egyptian people against terrorists who change their names.

Basma Qaddour