Brushing aside name-calling and accusations of the past, the Turkish and Egyptian presidents shared an enthusiastic handshake on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and followed it with claims of a “new era” in the ties that have been strained for the last decade.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s spokesman, Bassam Rady, said late Monday that the handshake between the two presidents “would be the beginning of the development of bilateral relations.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan echoed the same tone on his way back from Qatar, saying further actions would follow to rebuild relations between Cairo and Ankara. “The historical ties between the Turkish and Egyptian peoples are very important for us. What prevents it from being so again? We have provided proof of our good intentions,” he told journalists on the plane.
