Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

Bulldozers push earth and dredgers spit mud round the clock at Egypt's Suez Canal in a race to quickly expand the strategic waterway for two-way traffic, a project trumpeted by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi to revive both the country's damaged economy and visions of nationalist glory.

Saudi Arabia wants Turkey to make peace with Egypt, which is the only disagreement between Ankara and Riyadh, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has said, after his official visit to the oil-rich Arab country, which coincided with a separate visit from the Egyptian president.

A day before meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdo?an in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia?s new King Salman met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in a move that none of the parties want to correlate with a U.S.-supported move by the Saudis to form an anti-Iranian, Sunni front in the region.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and Saudi Arabia's King Salman, who met in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, have agreed to boost support to the Syrian opposition.

Egypt's electoral commission said on March 1 it was preparing a new timetable for parliamentary polls, delaying the March 21 vote after a court ruled parts of the election law unconstitutional.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered that the law be redrafted within a month and asked that "legal measures be undertaken to avoid delaying" the election, his office said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an is set to embark on a one-day trip to Saudi Arabia on Feb. 28 to meet new Saudi King Salman, who assumed his post last month. Erdo?an had attended the former king?s funeral, along with other world leaders, and is now paying an official visit to Riyadh.
 

An Egyptian presenter, working at one of the Egyptian stations broadcasting from Istanbul, was attacked at the station's building in the city on Feb. 24.

An Egyptian court on Feb. 23 sentenced Alaa Abdel Fattah, a leading dissident in the 2011 uprising that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak, to five years in prison over an illegal protest.
      
The remaining 24 defendants in the case received sentences ranging from three to 15 years.
      

More and more small terrorist groups in Libya are joining the Islamic State, drawn by its success in Iraq and Syria, terror expert Guido Steinberg warns in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

Steinberg argues that, although it seemed at first that these small groups were simply claiming to be IS, it recently became obvious that they have Islamic State contacts that support them.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Feb. 17 urged the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution allowing for an international military intervention in troubled Libya.
      
"There is no other choice. Taking into account that the Libyan people must agree that we act to restore security and stability," Sisi said in an interview with French radio Europe 1.