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Report: Hillary to be first foreign official to visit Egypt’s new President

Looks like Hillary Clinton will be the first foreign official to visit Mohammed Mursi. In light of current discoveries and events, the question that needs to be asked is, why?

Via Ahram:

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be the first foreign official to visit Egypt’s President-elect Mohamed Morsi, sources at Cairo International Airport told the Al-Ahram Arabic language news website Wednesday.

The sources said Clinton, along with other US officials, would discuss the future of US-Egyptian relations, the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, and urge respect for the socio-religious rights of Coptic Christians under Islamist rule.

Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi beat Mubarak’s last premier Ahmed Shafiq in the election runoff on 16-17 June to become Egypt’s first democratically elected president.

President Barack Obama on Sunday called Morsi to congratulate him on his victory and offer continued US support for Egypt’s transition to democracy.

Obama “emphasised his interest in working together with Morsi, on the basis of mutual respect, to advance the many shared interests between Egypt and the United States,” the White House said.

“Morsi expressed appreciation for Obama’s call and welcomed US support for Egypt’s transition,” the White House said in a press release. Obama and Morsi also agreed to stay in close touch in the coming weeks and months.

The revelation that Saleha Abedin – the mother of Hillary Clinton’s closest aide (Huma Abedin) – is a close colleague of Egypt’s new first lady makes this a little more interesting than it otherwise would be.

Via The Hill

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