How Did Egypt Get Close to Announcing ‘End of Terrorism’?

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi monitoring revision of Sinai development projects (Egyptian Presidency)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi monitoring revision of Sinai development projects (Egyptian Presidency)
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How Did Egypt Get Close to Announcing ‘End of Terrorism’?

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi monitoring revision of Sinai development projects (Egyptian Presidency)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi monitoring revision of Sinai development projects (Egyptian Presidency)

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has repeatedly made statements about his country succeeding in eliminating terrorism to a large extent. These claims have raised many questions about the steps Egypt has taken to fight terrorism.
Sisi had announced that Egypt will organize a massive celebration in the North Sinai Governorate.

The Egyptian governorate, over the past years, has been ailed by the presence of extremist groups.

The Egyptian army and police forces have launched a major security operation in north and central Sinai since February 2018 to purge the area from takfiris loyal to the terrorist organization ISIS. The campaign was named “Comprehensive Operation Sinai.”

Today, Sinai is witnessing many development projects for the restoration of its infrastructure. Recently, the region was visited by several ministers and officials.

Sisi noted that the North Sinai city of al-Arish witnessed the landing of a plane carrying Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly for the first time in almost eight years.

“We were not able to hold a (celebration) when al-Arish and Rafah were in the state they were seven years ago,” added the president.

Sisi mentioned general information about the planned celebration in al-Arish.

He said it would be a memorable one, noting that the event will also take place in other Sinai cities that suffered from terrorism in the past years, including Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid.

Sisi’s announcement signals stability and calm in Sinai after years of fighting “terrorism.”

In December 2017, unidentified attackers shelled al-Arish airport. The attack took place during a visit to the city by the Egyptian ministers of defense and interior.

At the time, the Egyptian army announced that an officer was killed, and two others were injured in the attack.

Madbouly, alongside seven ministers, had visited North Sinai in mid-January.

“The state, with all its affiliated bodies, has exerted arduous efforts to uproot terrorism in Sinai and at the same time establish development projects,” affirmed Madbouly.

Madbouly said the security situation in the governorate is stable, after tremendous efforts exerted by the state.

He also referred to the sacrifices made by the Armed Forces, the police, and the civilians to fight terrorism and restore stability to the region.

During an inspection tour of North Sinai, Madbouly talked about the aftermath of terrorist attacks targeting government and security institutions. He said that traces of bullets were still present on the facades of buildings.

“The celebration that Sisi announced in North Sinai proves that we are greatly close to eliminating the security challenges in Rafah, Sheikh Zuweid and al-Arish,” said Amr Abdel Moneim, an Egyptian researcher specializing in Islamic movements.

“The fete will be the result of a plan that was implemented successfully according to the methodologies of security operations and military strategies,” Moneim told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Moneim pointed out that the tribes in Sinai had participated in purging the region from terrorism.

Many victims of the Egyptian police and army fell during the anti-terrorism operations in Sinai.

Speaking on Egyptian Police Day on Monday, Sisi reminded attendees that Egypt has paid a steep price in its fight against terrorism.

North Sinai Governor Mohamed Abdel-Fadil Shousha affirmed that Sisi had allotted sizable attention to clear Sinai from terrorism and launch development projects there.

The Egyptian government, for its part, confirmed adopting a “comprehensive vision” for the reconstruction of the Sinai Peninsula after the elimination of “hotbeds of terrorism.”

Investments amounting to more than LE700 billion were and are being implemented to develop the Sinai Peninsula over eight years, the Egyptian government revealed.



Numbers That Matter from the First 100 Days of Trump’s Second Term

US President Donald Trump looks on, on the day he welcomes the Super Bowl LIX winner, NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 28, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump looks on, on the day he welcomes the Super Bowl LIX winner, NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 28, 2025. (Reuters)
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Numbers That Matter from the First 100 Days of Trump’s Second Term

US President Donald Trump looks on, on the day he welcomes the Super Bowl LIX winner, NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 28, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump looks on, on the day he welcomes the Super Bowl LIX winner, NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 28, 2025. (Reuters)

President Donald Trump's first 100 days back in the White House have been a demolition job — and that's a point of pride for his administration.

For the Republican administration, the raw numbers on executive actions, deportations, reductions in the federal workforce, increased tariff rates and other issues point toward a renewed America. To Trump's critics, though, he's wielding his authority in ways that challenge the Constitution's separation of powers and pose the risk of triggering a recession.

From executive orders to deportations, some defining numbers from Trump’s first 100 days:

Roughly 140 executive orders In just 100 days, Trump has nearly matched the number of executive orders that his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, signed during the previous four years, 162. Trump, at roughly 140, is essentially moving at a pace not seen since Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency, when the Great Depression necessitated urgent action.

But the number alone fails to capture the unprecedented scope of Trump's actions. Without seeking congressional approval, Trump has used his orders and directives to impose hundreds of billions of dollars annually in new import taxes and reshape the federal bureaucracy by enabling mass layoffs.

John Woolley, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and co-director of the American Presidency Project, sees "very aggressive assertions of presidential authority in all kinds of ways" that are far more audacious than anything done by former presidents. That includes Biden's student debt forgiveness program and Barack Obama's decision to allow residency for immigrants who arrived in the country illegally as children.

"None of those had the kind of arbitrary, forceful quality of Trump’s actions," Woolley said.

145% tariff rate on China Trump's tariff agenda has unnerved the global economy. He's gone after the two biggest US trade partners, Mexico and Canada, with tariffs of as much as 25% for fentanyl trafficking. He's put import taxes on autos, steel and aluminum. On his April 2 "Liberation Day," he slapped tariffs on dozens of countries that were so high that the financial markets panicked, causing him to pull back and set a 10% baseline tax on imports instead to allow 90 days of negotiations on trade deals.

But that pales in comparison to the 145% tariff he placed on China, which prompted China to fight back with a 125% tax on US goods. There are exemptions to the US tariffs for electronics. But inflationary pressures and recession fears are both rising as a trade war between the world's two largest economies could spiral out of control in dangerous ways.

The US president has said that China has been talking with his administration, but he's kept his description of the conversations vague. The Chinese government says no trade negotiations of any kind are underway. Trump is banking on the tariffs raising enough revenue for him to cut taxes, even as he simultaneously talks up the prospect of an agreement.

So far, despite the economic risks, the Trump team shows little desire to budge, even as the president claims a deal with China will eventually happen.

"I believe that it’s up to China to de-escalate because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Monday.

More than 10,000 square miles of Crimea Trump said during his presidential campaign that he could quickly defuse the Russian-started war in Ukraine. But European allies and others say the US president's statements about how to end the war reflect a troubling affinity for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Trump's peace proposal says that Ukraine must recognize Russian authority over the more than 10,000 square miles (26,000 square kilometers) of the Crimean Peninsula. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy rejected the idea out of hand: "There is nothing to talk about — it is our land, the land of the Ukrainian people."

Russia annexed the area in 2014 when Obama was president, and Trump says he's simply being realistic about its future.

The four meetings that Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, has had with Putin have yet to produce a trustworthy framework for the deal that Trump wants to deliver.

After recent Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns, Trump posted on social media that perhaps Putin "doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along."

Over 2,000 more Palestinians in Gaza dead Trump was eager to take credit for an "epic ceasefire" agreement in the Israel-Hamas war in order to restart the release of hostages taken in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. But the ceasefire ended in March, and more than 2,000 Palestinians have died since the temporary truce collapsed. Palestinian officials have put the total number of deaths above 52,200. Food, fuel and medicine have not entered the Gaza Strip for almost 60 days.

Trump said in February that he would remove the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and relocate them elsewhere, suggesting that the United States could take over the area, level the destroyed buildings and construct a luxurious "Riviera of the Middle East."

Roughly 280,000 federal job losses The Department of Government Efficiency, led by tech billionaire and adviser Elon Musk, is dramatically shrinking the government workforce. Across all agencies, there have been about 60,000 firings, including at the IRS, which might make it harder to collect taxes and reduce the budget deficit. Another 75,000 federal workers accepted administration buyout offers. And the Trump administration has floated at least another 145,000 job cuts.

Those estimated job losses don't include the possible layoffs and hiring freezes at nonprofits, government contractors and universities that had their federal funding frozen by the Trump administration.

The federal government had about 3 million federal employees, including at the US Postal Service, when Trump became president, according to the Labor Department.

139,000 deportations The Trump administration says it has deported 139,000 people who were in the United States without proper legal authority. Trump’s first months also have produced a sharp drop in crossings at the Southwest border, with Border Patrol tracking 7,181 encounters in March, down from 137,473 the same month last year.

Deportations have occasionally lagged behind Biden’s numbers, but Trump officials reject the comparison as not "apples to apples" because fewer people are crossing the border now.

The administration maintains that it's getting rid of violent and dangerous criminals. But many migrants who assert their innocence have been deported without due process.

In April, the Supreme Court directed the Trump administration to "facilitate" the return to the US of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvador citizen who was deported to his home country. Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland and had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs. So far, Abrego Garcia remains held in a Salvadoran prison.

Trump said last week that he won the presidential election on the promise of deportations and that the courts are interfering with his efforts.

"We’re getting them out, and a judge can say, ‘No, you have to have a trial,’" Trump said. "The trial's going to take two years, and now we’re going to have a very dangerous country if we’re not allowed to do what we’re entitled to do."