Muuhamad Yehia.. Cairo
French president Emmanuel Macron was welcomed to Cairo on Sunday by his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
At the centre of his three-day visit is a trilateral summit on Monday together with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
The talks will focus on the situation in Gaza as Israel escalates its offensive in the Palestinian enclave after the collapse of the short-lived ceasefire with Hamas
Macron is also expected to visit the Egyptian port of el-Arish, 50 kilometres west of the Gaza Strip, to meet with humanitarian aid workers based there.
Speaking on Monday, both men “condemned” the Israeli aggression in Gaza and highlighted the need for a peace settlement to end the war.
Israel has pushed to seize more territory in the enclave in what it says is a strategy to secure the release of hostages.
But on Sunday, there was time for some pleasure, as al-Sisi took Macron on a tour of Cairo’s historic Khan el-Khalili souk.
Shop owners and locals cheered as the two leaders, surrounded by tight security, walked through the market, interacting with vendors and posing for photographs.
Macron also visited the Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids which houses over 100,000 ancient artefacts and is due to officially open in July.