Blinken seeks detainee progress, but releases are Egypt’s ‘prerogative’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Al-Monitor he raised the cases of individual political prisoners during his two-day visit to Cairo, which included a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
CAIRO — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken used a visit to Cairo on Monday to raise with Egyptian officials the cases of prominent political prisoners and push for “concrete progress” on human rights.
“With regard to human rights individual cases, I have raised in the past and again, raised today, individual [cases]. That's important. So too though is progress on systemic change," Blinken said during a press conference alongside Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
