Egyptian National Dialogue’s coordinator denies political forces’ plans to pull out of dialogue

CAIRO – 15 October 2022: Coordinator of the Egyptian National Dialogue Diaa Rashwan denied rumors about intentions of some political forces to pull out of the dialogue scheduled to kick off in few weeks.

In remarks during his TV program on ETC TV, Rashwan said such rumors are spread by terrorist groups, those who used violence against the state, and those who do not recognize the country’s constitution.

The National Dialogue was called for by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in April among political forces. Rashwan repeatedly said the dialogue aims to find common grounds on priority issues in the economic, political, and social sectors.

Currently, the dialogue’s board of trustees held 10 sessions to discuss preparations for the actual meetings of the dialogue.

The deadline set for submitting names of who want to participate in the national dialogue sessions was today. This comes in preparation for the start of the dialogue’s sessions.

“All Egyptians are invited to participate in the national dialogue even if they did not receive a special invitation. The dialogue is open through the website of the National Training Academy. Send us via e-mail, we are waiting for all your contributions,” Rashwan said earlier.

Rashwan added that the dialogue aims to present ideas for discussion and to get out of it with the best ones for reform.

The country took multiple steps to enhance its human rights status, including launching the dialogue, reactivating the Presidential Pardon Committee, and also launching the National Human Rights Strategy in September last year.

Since the reactivation of the pardon committee, Egypt released hundreds of inmates and pretrial detainees.