Minister now also discussed how we can intensify our countrys Economic Engagement and support our private sectors to generate jobs and prosperity for both of our people and i acknowledged and welcomed the very important although we know difficult steps towards reform that president sisi has undertaken in order to create a very Strong Foundation for future prosperity and Economic Performance in egypt and those have been necessary although difficult to be fully receive the full support of the i. M. F. And egypt has met all of those requirements will do all we can to continue to encourage economic recovery and and we hope that American Companies are able to increase their investments in egypt that will create jobs and opportunities here while the United States again commits itself to standing with egypt Standing Shoulder to shoulder and these in the fight against terrorism but also standing together to create a more stable region for everyone as well and i thank the foreign minister for our opportunity to meet an exchange on so many important issues thank you thank you very much and if to him again and again i would anybody cue questions from both the american and in the science at that. In the middle east news agency. Address my question to you night the states. Secretary of state. Well when it was. My question to the also to let him with the im in that i love we need but at the end here i love strategy he had reports from the fed. From both the United States and egypt that the man. And relations deep rooted in history how women are less and why than we can not that on average gyptian citizens feel. This is why does the average egyptian citizen the. Most see that tangible weathermans an assistance i mean military assistance intelligence by the United States. Yes and all the ways the u. S. Media is conveying and negative picture from agent i think the commitment the u. S. Has to egypts security in the fight against terrorism should be evident and both with the release of about a billion dollars of foreign military. Financing assistance to egypt to continue to strengthen its capabilities and also sharing of other approaches to countering terrorism some of which we can talk about some of which we cant so easily talk about but our joint commitment to defeat isis is steadfast and there has been no gap between egypt and the United States in our joint efforts to confront terrorist and extremist extremism in the region but most specifically here in egypt as well so i think the egyptian people should be confident that the u. S. Commitment to continuing to support egypt in this fight against terrorism and bringing security for the egyptian people is steadfast and that will continue and we had a great deal of exchange today about how we can advance that and we and we just mentioned the intent to have a Strategic Dialogue later this year all of these are opportunities for us to identify other ways that we can strengthen and support egypts fight against terrorism but also all to really to strengthen the Economic Development of egypt as well and not let this so adamant and again embody. Kuto. Washington post a question from the United States press. Question mr secretary given that several potential candidates to run against the president in the upcoming election were arrested or just thought how credible and fair do you believe those elections will be and will the United States consider withholding more military aid from egypt if you determine they were not and mr foreign minister several human Rights Groups have called this the most repressive era in modern or gyptian history what did secretary killer soon tell you about democracy and civil liberty here in egypt and will anything change here in egypt after your meeting today thank you well i think as i indicated in my prepared remarks i would ensure the same you know we we have always advocated for free and Fair ElectionsTransparent Elections not just for egypt but it in any country and so the u. S. Is always going to advocate for an electoral process that respects the rights of its citizens to make the choices the citizens want to make and the full participation of citizens in those elections and nothing has changed about our advocacy for for those types of elections. Relates to some of the comments that have been made by certain. Members of the Human Rights Community and other activists i would only recommend that us retain for yourself the nature of them the. Current situation in egypt as relates human rights and how the egyptian people view this administration and its efforts to strengthen and protect human rights and whether there is that sense of restriction that you alluded to i think it is. It isnt helpful that that Certain Group projects from a perspective of lack of information lack of direct association to a society but it is much much more important to the general conditions of the freedom of press that is available the variety of Television Shows the the dialogue and the Exchange Development in the social and political field is a is an of aleutian every process i think over the last eleven years the egyptian people have shown their commitment and the determination and their ability to change their course and to indicate their dissatisfaction if they deem that they were dissatisfied they have been able to change or two governments in the last seven years and they have undertaken legislative elections and know how to protect their rights and to advocate for those rights so its important that i think we recognize that it is it is the egyptian people who should determine how they are. Applying their a free them their. Political activism and what i hope that you will have the opportunity while youre here in egypt to discuss this with with the egyptian. On the street and sitting from them directly whether they are satisfied with the Current Conditions we have the question with the secretary of the related to egypts efforts to develop both politically and socially that we continue to do so of our desire to see. Evolve into. A place of that can fulfill the aspirations of its people and we will continue to rely on the support. Depend on from the United States in this regard these are commitments that this administration is confident it will fulfill and it is responsible to the egyptian people to continue to fulfill those commitments stipulated in our constitution. On a screen is out of the Israeli Settlers and this is. Going to resonate with mr allison the secretary of state. Rather than the Vice President spence was in egypt a while ago and the headline was the recognition by the u. S. Administration of if there isnt as the capital of israel said there was another rejection and the world. Now is speaking about the deal of the century and then the. As it is rejected by the palestinian even before this proposed by the United States answers and im certain i made this wide open on terms of rejection are you still have these of course but that theyre meant to propose that deal of the century and made this straight rejection they have a question to. The egyptian foreign minister have you spoken with their mr tillerson about any efforts about resuming their Peace Process. Aid shipped perspective on the arabs of peace with israel and announcement President Trump made regarding drew slim he also made two very important points as well one of which was. He was not advocating for any changes to the status quo as to oversight of the holy holy sites recognizing the proper role of existing authorities and the second is that the final boundaries of jerusalem are yet to be determined and that those will be decided among the parties and those i think its oftentimes those two important points seem to have been overlooked in his announcement and yes the u. S. Is still committed to the Peace Process and Still Believes we have an Important Role to play in bringing the parties together and seeing a resolution to this and President Trumps committed to that. The key the. Years when there is no doubt the Israeli Palestinian with conflict to listen was part of our discussion. And during their joint talks with mr tillotson we stressed the necessity of reaching solution to this conflict on the basis of the two state solution and it is also important for the United States to continue its role and support until final settlement is raised. As distressed on many occasions by the president sisi that this conflict must be brought to an end so that peace lasting peace and stability can be restored to the region and terrorism eradicate them it is also important to observe the international the resolutions in this respect. Myself for iterated that egypt is prepared to do or what it carried in achieving this goal and ending this conflict so that peace is me said betty that security can prove a. Thing and that governments can deliver to its people egypt will continue that will lead me to coordinate with the United States the European Union and other european players and of course with both taxi stakeholders in israel and palestine. So that a lot of the Peace Process can be the longest. Goal with the aim to maintain stability and security and speed up the process so that final settlement is racist. Thank you. Secretary tillerson Vice President pens an interview with the Washington Post endorsed what youve described publicly as talks about talks with the North Koreans and president south koreas president moon said he would go to pyongyang this is the start of a diplomatic process on north korea. And then for foreign minister shokri the u. S. Has in the past raised concerns about egypts ties with north korea what is egypt doing to cut those ties im not sure i could hear the in the last part of your question. Diplomatic process. Well as to as to the Vice President s comments about. Potentially having talks and whether its the start of a diplomatic process i think its its too early to judge as weve said for some time its really up to the North Koreans to decide when theyre ready to engage with us and i sincere was a meaningful way they know what has to be on the table for conversations. Weve said for some time that i think its important that we have were going to need to have some discussions that preceded any form of negotiation to determine whether the parties are in fact ready to engage in something thats meaningful in order for us to then put together the construct of a negotiation so well just have to wait and see. We did discuss with the secretary still is to the issues related to north korea of the Korean Peninsula and the security of that region egypt has had normal diplomatic ties with north korea as does many western and nato members and those ties. In terms of the relationship but limited to representation and. Almost no existing Economic Situation which we deem as threatening to the global. Nonproliferation regime one that has to be dealt with in. Maintaining Global Security also the threats of a Ballistic Missile systems to south korea and to japan and we believe that all of these issues must be resolved for the security of the region on the Korean Peninsula and we will continue to discuss these issues and to take the appropriate measures to deal with these challenges thank you very much. All right that was. Egypts foreign minister sana shokri there and the u. S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson giving a press Conference Following their meetings in cairo on monday morning Rex Tillerson stopping in cairo the first of. A five nation middle east tour hes heading to kuwait later on monday will be there on the tuesday well talk about that a little more a few minutes but first lets get some analysis on what weve just heard aljazeera has been at smith has been listening in to were all of that hes in gaza but a lot of diplomatic speak and glossing over some of the the issues in answer to some of the more could questions there what do we learn. Well we know that before tillerson sets off on this trip u. S. Officials admitted that most of tillerson is discussions in this region will be difficult now yes pleasantries were exchanged the two individuals. And Rex Tillerson clearly get on well but there were all topics raised the americans say they raised the topic of human rights and a free and Fair Election in egypt as a president ial election towards the end of march in egypt were present up till fattah elsisi is standing for a second round but pretty much more all the serious contenders who might have been a serious contender to that position of either been removed or have been arrested theres only one person now standing against sisi and he has previously expressed support for sisi so the u. S. Said little they said or the discussions touched on the idea that they should protect should be the protection of civil rights and of Civil Societies but also in his Opening Statements he said that their discussions were friendly but they recognized each others ability to talk without intervention in each others affairs which i thought was an interesting statement from shakuri so tilson is clearly reflected the american concerns about the human rights situation in egypt but egypt has deflected those ages away from internal egyptian domestic issues both Rex Tillerson and the foreign minister keen to emphasize that they share broadly similar views on all the various regional and International Issues that they discussed. Yeah i mean particularly if they raised the issue which is relevant here from the palestinian territories advancing some sort of peace. Talks with the israelis the egyptians saying they were behind at that despite. Donald trumps recognition of jerusalem as the capital of israel egypt saying they still wanted the u. S. To have a role in any future final step on the settlement discussions between the palestinians and the israelis egypt herself has been involved in the process here in gaza because hes been involved in hamas hearing guards and dominated Palestinian Authority in the west bank handing over power to them its not going very well hearing garza there been lots of sticking points but hamas is political leader has that at the same time is tell us in his egypt in egypt has been in egypt discussing the problems of handing over power here in the palestinian territories so the israelis or the egyptians and the americans it seems still want the americans to be involved in any future final settles settlement negotiations here and the right interrogator bernard many thanks to brenda smith lived in gaza lets bring in sunny handy whos editor in chief of International Interest which is a Current Affairs magazine hes live for us in london good to have you with us sunny what do you make of what you heard. I think its very interesting i think to distance trip in general like you said hes dealing with very difficult issues but there are a lot of goals that he has to achieve during this visit and i think with regards to egypt i know we mentioned a lot about the human rights situation but i dont think thats the u. S. Is top priority the u. S. Is struggling with this backlash announcing jerusalem as the capital of israel and it knows that one of the key leverage is that they have on the Palestinian Movement it is indeed egypt is indeed the Border Crossing is indeed the previous pressure that sisi has applied on the palestinian authorities it seems that with tennysons very friendly tone taken towards relations between us and egypt that theyve agreed to sideline some of these human rights issues in exchange for some of this political leverage in other words listening to this and it almost seems as if that we have concerns about whats going on domestically but at this particular moment in time we really need you to help us out with this palestine israel issue and the reason i say that is because when you look at the different capitals that this will be visiting hes going to istanbul to talk about africa hes going to cooperate to talk about the qatar saudi feud hes going to beirut to talk about the hezbollah issue so and hes going to i meant to also talk about the jerusalem issue so in other words the u. S. Is a bit hamstrung here and it needs to cause some movement in the middle east in order to achieve some some of its aims the u. S. Has suspended one hundred ninety five Million Dollars in military aid over its concerns about human rights and democracy in egypt alludes keen to