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Egypt, Jordan urge int'l, Arab cooptation to combat terrorism

Xinhua, February 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and visiting King Abdullah II of Jordan agreed on Thursday on the necessity of cooperation between the international community and Arab states to combat terrorism, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

"With regards to enhancing military and security cooperation, Egypt and Jordan agreed to form a work group from both sides to set a framework for facing regional challenges," Egyptian Presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef said in the statement.

The visit of the Jordanian monarch to Cairo comes while a number of fellow Arab states are suffering growing political turmoil and security deterioration, including Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya.

Egypt and Jordan have recently been subjected to terrorist activities attributed to the Islamic State (IS) militant group and their affiliates in Syria and Libya.

In early February, IS burnt a captured Jordanian pilot to death in Syria, which provoked the Jordanian authorities to execute two arrested IS affiliates and launch airstrikes at IS targets in Syria.

A couple of weeks later, Egypt launched similar airstrikes at targets attributed to IS affiliates in Libya a day after the group released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts in the neighboring turmoil-stricken country.

After the ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by the military in July 2013 and the blacklisting of his Muslim Brotherhood group as "a terrorist organization," the new Egyptian leadership has been adopting the slogan of "war against terrorism."

Besides leading Gulf states excluding Qatar, Jordan was among the Arab countries that supported the new Egyptian leadership under Sisi.

"President Sisi expressed Egypt's appreciation of the honorable positions of Jordan and its support for Egypt, particularly in its war against terrorism," the presidential statement went on, describing the bilateral relations between the two countries as "deep."

The two leaders also discussed a number of regional issues of mutual concerns, including the Syrian crisis, where they both urged a comprehensive political settlement, and the Palestinian issues as they called for resuming Palestinian-Israeli peace talks until the implementation of the two-state solution.

As for Libya, President Sisi and King Abdullah reiterated their support for the Libya official institutions including the elected parliament and the national army, urging for a political solution to restore security and stability for the turmoil-stricken country. Endit