Domestic and foreign challenges Sisi faced in 1095 days in office (II)

CAIRO - 1 July 2017: Four years after the deposing of Mohamed Morsi and the rise to power of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, it seems that the latter is gradually confronting new challenges amid the sweeping popular support he enjoys since the early days of his presidency.

Citizens protesting against Morsi, calling for the June 30 revolution - Press photo
Sisi is facing many difficult challenges on both the domestic and diplomatic fronts, as numerous crises stemming from the domestic and foreign policy of his government are piling up.

On the diplomatic front, the Muslim Brotherhood, designated outlawed in Egypt and other Gulf states, has worked on exporting baseless and untrue situations about alleged oppression and lack of freedom in Egypt to the U.S. administration and foreign countries. However, since the new U.S. administration led by President Donald Trump took the reins of the rule, the Brotherhood endeavors to sue President Sisi on claims of oppression of the opposition failed.

Egypt’s relations with Italy have been strained due to the incident of Italian student Giulio Regeni, who was murdered in Egypt. The Egyptian and Italian prosecutors exchanged many visits to investigate the incident and restore warm ties between the two countries.

Giulio Regeni - Press photo
Currently, a crisis also seems to be brewing between Egypt and Britain, despite the warm official relations between them, due to Britain's decision to consider granting political asylum to members of the Muslim Brotherhood . However, Britain seems to reconsider that decision after being a victim too to the same extremism and terrorism that Egypt is fighting.

These crises join the ongoing crisis in Egypt's relations with Turkey and Qatar due to the latter's support for the Brotherhood and their position that the Sisi's regime is illegitimate and staged a coup against the legitimate Morsi’s regime. After many attempts with Qatar to stop supporting extremist groups, Egypt and other Arab nations severed ties with the oil-rich Gulf state earlier on June 5.

The Arab-Qatari rift may be resolved only if Qatar stops backing the Brotherhood and other terrorist groups in the region, according to the demands’ list delivered to Qatar via the Kuwaiti Emir who leads the mediation between the two parties.

Qatari Emir Tamim Bin Hamad planting a kiss on Muslim Brotherhood figure Sheikh Yusuf El-Qaradawi's forehead
The problems on the domestic front include the deepening economic crisis and the collapse of Egypt's tourist industry, which arouse public rage.

The Brotherhood attempts to impede the Egyptian administration corrective path which began with the 30 June revolution included organizing protests against Sisi in many foreign countries during his firsts visits abroad such as Germany, the U.S. and France in 2014 and 2015.

By time, the Brotherhood and Sisi opponents got fed up with these destructive attempts. Such protests stopped and Sisi has begun his corrective revolution against corruption.

Sisi has taken many bold decisions that seemed to decrease his popular support domestically, but he was smart enough to avoid such consequences amid courageous decisions to remove subsides.

Sisi is still facing many challenges on the local and foreign fronts most notably combating terrorism, leading a ‘religious revolution’, encouraging direct foreign investments (DFI) and tourists and so many significant problems which he succeeded to settle down some of them, while he is still trying to tackle others.

The next report will review which challenges Sisi succeeded to resolve and which are still in progress. Moreover, the next report shall be a guidance to decide whether Sisi deserves another four-year term in office or not.