Meeting between Egyptian Foreign Minister and Jared Kushner cancelled

CAIRO – 23 August 2017: Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is no longer meeting U.S. President Donald Trump's advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner on Wednesday, a copy of his schedule sent out to journalists showed, according to Reuters.

A Foreign Ministry official told Reuters the meeting had been cancelled but did not provide a reason. Shoukry had been scheduled to meet with a U.S. delegation led by Kushner to discuss the Middle East peace process.

The U.S. decided Tuesday to reduce some of the funds allocated under the US assistance program to Cairo, a step that was regretted by Egypt as a “misjudgment” that could have negative implications on common interests.

“Egypt considers this step as a misjudgment of the nature of the strategic relations that binds the two countries over decades, and reflects the lack of understanding of the importance of supporting the stability and success of Egypt. It also underestimates the size of economic and security challenges facing the Egyptian people, and implies a mixing of cards that may have negative repercussions on achieving Egyptian-American interests,” read the Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement Wednesday.