A non-Arab state, like Turkey, can’t rule the Arab World, Egypt’s interim foreign minister, Nabil Fahmy, told RT Arabic in an exclusive interview, calling Ankara’s ambitions to restore the Ottoman Empire groundless due to failed relations with neighbors.
Egypt’s interim government has only nine months ahead of it, but
during that time Egypt will review its relations with all the
countries on the world map, Fahmy said.
The minister stressed that all the attempts by the US and the EU
to bring the army-backed government and the pro-Morsi Muslim
Brotherhood movement to the negotiations table have failed,
because the sides weren’t ready to reach an agreement and lacked
mutual trust.
“First of all, it refers to the political Islam movements. The
Muslim Brotherhood wanted a return to the past, but it’s
impossible and unacceptable for the majority of the Egyptian
people,” he said. “It’s not a problem between the Muslim
Brotherhood and the government or the leadership of Egypt. It’s a
problem between the Muslim Brotherhood and the majority of the
Egyptian people.”
The FM stressed that all the attempts of
“internationalization” of the Egyptian problem won’t be
tolerated and that the crisis in the country will be settled
“the Egyptian way.”
Fahmy has slammed Egypt’s foreign policy under Morsi, saying it
was too ideological and lacked sense of direction, “hopping
between the Eastern and pro-Western course.”
The minister said that it’s going to change under him. He has
ordered a revision of Egypt’s relations with all the states on
the world map “without exception,” including the US, which
had significant influence on the country’s previous government.
“Our decisions will be based on evaluation of how our relations
get in line with our [Egypt’s] interests,” he explained.
Despite Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait showing their support
for the Muslim Brotherhood, it’s necessary for Egypt to maintain
close and effective dialogue with its Arab neighbors, Fahmy
stressed.
“Our relations with Arab states are relations with brotherly
states. Therefore, they have a special nature and are unlike any
traditional relationship between two different countries,” he
said. “Our mutual understanding in relations with brotherly
states – when it’s present – reaches the greatest heights. When
there are differences between us, no matter how tense they are,
in the end we always find a solution in the frame of our special
relations.”
According to the FM, all former statements now belong in the past
and in building its new foreign policy Cairo won’t go back to the
status quo before June 30, when the first anti-Morsi protests
began across the country.
But Fahmy criticized Turkey and the Islamist government of prime
minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for their backing of the Muslin
Brotherhood rule in Egypt.
Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) “is afraid that
if the ideas of political Islam will fail in the region, it’ll
has [have] a negative impact on its own position within
Turkey,” he explained.
The minister also believes that the Turkish plan to recreate the
Ottoman Empire of 1299-1923 and take the leading position in the
Arab World has no grounds in it.
“A non-Arab state can’t head the Arab Islamic world,”
Fahmy said, adding that Turkish foreign policy, which was
previously highly appreciated, is now “suffering a
defeat”.
“It’s clear that Turkey currently has bad relations with all of
its neighboring countries,” he stressed. "Thus, Turkey
can’t become the head of the Islamic World at the present stage
because of its failed foreign policy and lack of capacity to play
a leading role in the region.”
The cooling of relations between the two countries recently led
to cancellation of joint military drills, but Fahmy noted that
“in the long term, neither Egypt nor Turkey are interested in
their relationship being spoiled.”
There should also be “no hostility” in relations between
Cairo and Hamas, although the Palestinian Sunni Islamic movement,
which controls the Gaza strip, stands on basically the same
grounds as the Muslim Brotherhood, the FM stressed.
He called Hamas “a part of the solution of the Palestinian
problem,” but stressed that Egypt respects its peace treaty
with Israel, expressing hope that the 1979 document would become
“a starting point for a comprehensive peace between the Arab
countries and Israel.”
As for the situation in Syria where the civil war between the
government and western-backed Islamist rebels has been raging
since March 2011, Fahmy expressed his full backing for the
Geneva-2 peace talks.
“It must be a serious conference with the participation of all
stakeholders,” he said. “Because the situation in Syria
contains the dangerous potential of ‘reshaping’ the whole of the
Middle East to such an extent that we haven’t seen since World
War I.”
Fahmy also said he has frequent and “objective”
conversations with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov,
promising that bilateral visits which will clarify the situation
between Moscow and Cairo are “just a matter of time”.
Nabil Fahmy was sworn in as Egypt’s foreign minister in the
interim government led by PM Hazem Al Beblawi, on July 16. The
62-year-old is a career diplomat, who from 1999 to 2008 was his
country’s ambassador to the US.