The visit of Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi dominated the phone talks between Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday, Al Ahram Newspaper reported. Earlier on Wednesday, a German government spokesperson announced that German Chancellor Angela Merkel would meet El-Sisi during his visit to Germany next month. Merkel's position comes a day after the message sent by Bundestag's Speaker Norbert Lammert to Egypt's Ambassador to Berlin to cancel his meeting with the President. He justified his decision with what he described as human rights violations committed in Egypt under the current regime. On Wednesday afternoon, at a press conference with his Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz, Shoukry said that Egypt had never asked to meet the parliament speaker during El-Sisi's visit in the first place. "Other countries should not interfere in Egypt's internal affairs," he added. Egypt's justice ministry said, in a statement on Wednesday, "Such comments violate the international conventions based on respecting the sovereignty of other states."
