Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi praised the decision of the late Egyptian President Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat to make peace with Israel in 1979 calling on the other Arab leaders to follow suit.

Sisi’s statement was made at a symposium with the Egyptian military on the anniversary of the 6th of October war in 1973.

“Sadat overrun stable concepts and literature after the October war launching the peace initiative which proved his foresight,” said Sisi. “I hope every responsible leader in our region will follow suit and set out into further depths.” Sisi added that, aside from war, there is the culture of the time, which could form a wall against the decision makers, but some leaders have the courage to overcome it. In the same vein, Israel’s channel 12 reported, two weeks ago, that Sisi is working on promoting security cooperation with Israel.

Over the past months, Al-Sisi has spoken out recurrently about his desire to tighten his ties with Israel. Egyptian expert Ahmed Sherif told Egypt Watch that such statements and steps are linked with the US criticism of the human rights situation in Egypt. “Arab leaders used to consider Israel a royal gate to US paradise.”