Egypt, EU to Enhance Partnership

Sisi met with Von der Leyen in Cairo last week. (Egyptian presidency)
Sisi met with Von der Leyen in Cairo last week. (Egyptian presidency)
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Egypt, EU to Enhance Partnership

Sisi met with Von der Leyen in Cairo last week. (Egyptian presidency)
Sisi met with Von der Leyen in Cairo last week. (Egyptian presidency)

The ninth meeting of the EU-Egypt Association Council is set to kick off on Sunday in Luxembourg.

The event will be co-chaired by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.

It will endorse the new EU-Egypt Partnership Priorities document 2021–2027, which will guide the partnership between both parties, Egypt’s official news agency MENA reported.

The meeting will also tackle the relation between Egypt and the EU, as well as other political issues.

Participants will discuss in the plenary session the developments and prospects of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Egypt.

The political dialogue will then touch on global and regional issues of common interest.

The meeting comes a few days after EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Cairo and met with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Sisi said the EU is Cairo’s key partner in various fields, adding that they both agree to lay the foundations for a strategic partnership.”

Von der Leyen pledged “immediate relief of 100 million euros” to support food security in Egypt, which has relied on Russia and Ukraine for over 80% of its wheat.

Egypt has been pressing to achieve a qualitative leap in its partnership with the EU in the future by enhancing cooperation in various major sectors, including energy and clean energy, food security, digital transformation, electric transport, modern agriculture and irrigation, and vaccine production.

It has established mechanisms to encourage European companies to invest more in Egypt and signed a tripartite cooperation with the EU and their partners in the African continent.



Israel Presses Jenin Raid

Israeli army vehicles block a road on the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
Israeli army vehicles block a road on the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
TT

Israel Presses Jenin Raid

Israeli army vehicles block a road on the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
Israeli army vehicles block a road on the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH

A Palestinian official reported shooting and explosions in the flashpoint West Bank town of Jenin on Wednesday as Israeli forces pressed a raid that the military described as a "counterterrorism" operation.

"The situation is very difficult," Kamal Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin, told AFP.

"The occupation army has bulldozed all the roads leading to the Jenin camp, and leading to the Jenin Governmental Hospital... There is shooting and explosions," he added.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces launched an operation in Jenin which Palestinian officials said killed 10 people, just days after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in the Gaza Strip.

According to Abu al-Rub, Israeli forces detained around 20 people from villages near Jenin, a bastion of Palestinian militancy.

The Israeli military said it had launched a "counterterrorism operation" in the area, and had "hit over 10 terrorists.”

"Additionally, aerial strikes on terror infrastructure sites were conducted and numerous explosives planted on the routes by the terrorists were dismantled," it said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The Israeli forces are continuing the operation."

Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed to continue the assault.

"It is a decisive operation aimed at eliminating terrorists in the camp," Katz said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the military would not allow a "terror front" to be established there.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military and the Shin Bet security agency announced that, in coordination with the Border Police, they had launched an operation named "Iron Wall" in the area.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the raid aimed to "eradicate terrorism" in Jenin.

He linked the operation to a broader strategy of countering Iran "wherever it sends its arms — in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen," and the West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says more than 800 people have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 2023.