The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will send delegations to the US in the near future to open a dialogue with the new U.S. administration about the future of Egyptian-American relationships, well-informed diplomatic sources said. The delegations will include partisan, independent and civil society personalities. The first delegation, which is due to travel next month, will include Mohamed Kamal, member of the Shura Council and Director of the Center for American Studies at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, and lawyer Mona Zulfiqar. The second delegation, which is due to travel next April, will include Hossam Badrawi, member of the Shura Council, Munir Fakhry Abdel Nour, Secretary-General of al-Wafd Party, and Abdel Moneim Said, member of the Shura Council and director of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
The visit agenda includes several meetings with government officials and leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives, both Republicans and Democrats. There will be also meetings with symbols of the US civil society, some senior journalists and the leaders of studies centers. The talks will focus on the development of bilateral relations, which had declined during the Bush Administration, as well as the future of the Middle East and the U.S. role in the region. In addition, the Egyptian delegation will explain political developments in Egypt during the past few years as well as human rights issues and the role of civil society.
