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Egypt’s Sisi Visits Azerbaijan as Part of Asia Tour

Egyptian President Sisi is welcomed at the airport upon his arrival in Baku. (Egyptian presidency)
Egyptian President Sisi is welcomed at the airport upon his arrival in Baku. (Egyptian presidency)
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Egypt’s Sisi Visits Azerbaijan as Part of Asia Tour

Egyptian President Sisi is welcomed at the airport upon his arrival in Baku. (Egyptian presidency)
Egyptian President Sisi is welcomed at the airport upon his arrival in Baku. (Egyptian presidency)

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi arrived in Azerbaijan on Friday as part of a tour of Asia that has so far taken him to India.

Presidency spokesman Bassam Rady said the visit to Baku aims to bolster the unique ties that bind their countries.

Sisi will meet with President Ilham Aliyev to discuss boosting political and economic relations, he added.

They will tackle cooperation and coordination between their countries and regional and international developments.

Local media in Azerbaijan said Sisi’s visit is a strong push forward in bilateral cooperation and an opportunity to exploit untapped potential to deepen cooperation on various levels.

The year 2022 marked 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Egypt and Azerbaijan. Throughout that time, they established advanced cooperation on the political, economic, trade and cultural levels.

The diplomatic ties were formalized on May 27, 1992. Egypt opened its embassy in Baku in April 1993 and Azerbaijan set up its mission in Cairo in January 1994.

Over the years, Egypt and Azerbaijan have signed around 60 cooperation agreements and cooperated in energy, construction, mining and other fields.

As of December 2022, trade exchange between them amounted to 16.1 billion dollars.

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Arab World

US Eases Restrictions on Syria While Keeping Sanctions in Place

A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
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US Eases Restrictions on Syria While Keeping Sanctions in Place

A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)

The US on Monday eased some restrictions on Syria's transitional government to allow the entry of humanitarian aid after opposition factions ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad last month.

The US Treasury issued a general license, lasting six months, that authorizes certain transactions with the Syrian government, including some energy sales and incidental transactions.

The move does not lift sanctions on the nation that has been battered by more than a decade of war, but indicates a limited show of US support for the new transitional government.

The general license underscores America's commitment to ensuring its sanctions “do not impede activities to meet basic human needs, including the provision of public services or humanitarian assistance,” a Treasury Department statement reads.

Since Assad's ouster, representatives from the nation's new de facto authorities have said that the new Syria will be inclusive and open to the world.

The US has gradually lifted some penalties since Assad departed Syria for protection in Russia. The Biden administration in December decided to drop a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month.

The announcement followed a meeting in Damascus between al-Sharaa, who was once aligned with al-Qaeda, and the top US diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, who led the first US diplomatic delegation into Syria since Assad’s ouster. The US and UN have long designated HTS as a terrorist organization.

HTS led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule. From 2011 until Assad’s downfall, Syria’s uprising and civil war killed an estimated 500,000 people.

Much of the world ended diplomatic relations with Assad because of his crackdown on protesters, and sanctioned him and his Russian and Iranian associates.

Syria’s infrastructure has been battered, with power cuts rampant in the country and some 90% of its population living in poverty. About half the population won’t know where its next meal will come from, as inflation surges.

The pressure to lift sanctions has mounted in recent years as aid agencies continue to cut programs due to donor fatigue and a massive 2023 earthquake that rocked Syria and Türkiye. The tremor killed over 59,000 people and destroyed critical infrastructure that couldn’t be fixed due to sanctions and overcompliance, despite the US announcing some humanitarian exemptions.