Obama Calls Egypt’s Morsi To Push Democracy
President Obama called the winner and the loser of Egypt’s presidential election and emphasized preserving mutual interests, an allusion to the peace treaty with Israel and strong U.S.-Egyptian ties.
In his conversation with the victor, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, “The President underscored that the United States will continue to support Egypt’s transition to democracy and stand by the Egyptian people as they fulfill the promise of their revolution,” the White House said in a statement. “He emphasized his interest in working together with President-elect Morsi, on the basis of mutual respect, to advance the many shared interests between Egypt and the United States.”
Israeli officials have expressed concern, based on the Brotherhood’s election rhetoric and recent unrest on the Egyptian-Israeli border, that Morsi would lead a rollback from his country’s landmark 1979 peace treaty with the Jewish state.
Morsi, however, also sounded a conciliatory note in his victory speech.
“We will honor international treaties and agreements, and will create balanced international relations based on mutual interests and respect,” he said, according to the Times of Israel.
Obama also spoke to Gen. Ahmed Shafiq, the losing candidate and the last prime minister to serve deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak; Shafiq was allegedly favored by the country’s powerful military establishment.
“The president encouraged General Shafiq to continue to play a role in Egyptian politics by supporting the democratic process and working to unify the Egyptian people,” the White House statement said.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
