Cairo: US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived on Saturday in Cairo on the latest leg of a regional tour to forge a coalition against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) militants.
Kerry is scheduled to meet Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi and Arab League chief Nabeel Al Arabi.
Relations between Washington and Cairo have been strained since the military’s overthrow of elected Islamist president Mohammad Mursi last year, but the Egyptian government sees the fight against Isil as its cause as well.
Mursi’s successor, the former army chief Al Sissi, is fighting Islamist militants in the restive Sinai Peninsula who have expressed support for Isil. But it appears unlikely that Egypt’s formidable army will make a significant military contribution to the fight in Iraq and Syria.
Washington is seeking a stamp of approval for its campaign from Egypt’s religious institutions, which include the prestigious Al Azhar.
“One of the issues is to have their religious institutions to speak out against Isil, to talk about it in Fridays sermons,” a US official travelling with Kerry told reporters.
“They [the Egyptians] are concerned about foreign fighters, an issue that has aggravated their domestic terrorism,” the official said.
