Sisi highlights progress on furthering dialogue among youth

CAIRO - 17 March 2019: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi asked the attendees in the launching of the first edition of the Arab and African Youth Platform in Aswan to stand up for a minute of silence in sympathy with the victims who were shot dead in a terror attack on a mosque in New Zealand on Friday.

The president condemned on Saturday the incident asserting that Egypt is against all types of extremism and terrorism. “We here from Egypt and Africa refute any coward terror attacks on humanity,” the president stated.

“The challenges faced by humanity are very obvious. That is in addition to the unprecedented widespread of conflicts that gave rise to a size of destruction that has never been witnessed throughout history,” President Sisi asserted.

“The scenes of refugees and the cries of victims families have become normal and part of our daily lives. Unfortunately, the share of our Arab region and African continent of those conflicts and that destruction is the largest with no comparison,” the president elaborated.

“Now, we live in a region exacerbated by present conflicts that menace its future and raze its past. We are facing such contemporary threats that evoke sectarianism and clash of ideologies,” the president added.



“We have put our youth on top of segments that receive attention and care for a future without conflict. We succeeded in creating a common ground where me meet and manage our differences in a civilized manner, and establish an effective and continuous communication,” the president stated.

“The national youth forums succeeded to create unique civilized dialogues. Then, they turned into an idea that can be generalized and globalized. The World Youth Forum stemmed from the ideas of the Egyptian youth to be a platform for dialogue among all youth worldwide in all their diversity and differences,” the president said.

“Today, we are witnessing the launch of a new edition of a product of Egyptian youth forums where African and Arab youth meet on Egyptian soil to debate and exchange views in great harmony on the banks of the Nile River,” the President Sisi announced.

“We will hold talks on the promising future characterized by peace and tolerance hoping for a world without conflicts. Hope is intertwined with the willpower of our youth in overcoming challenges facing Arab and African countries. Capitalizing on their enthusiasm and purity, youth will be the determining factor in the equation of building the future,” the Egyptian president asserted.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you all in Egypt, the land of peace and development; Egypt whose people hold goodwill to the entire world. Egypt that is proud of its Arab and African affiliation, and that always reaches out for reinforcing fraternity and cooperation with its neighbors. Egypt is the beginning and end of history. Egypt whose people wanted peace so they fought for it, and wanted stability and development so insisted to work towards those goals. With trust in the willpower of Egyptian youth, pride of their diversity, their vision for the future, enthusiasm and capabilities, I inaugurate the Arab and African Youth Platform. Long live Egyptian youth. Long live African youth. Long live Arab youth,” President Sisi concluded.