Die-in protest staged at Downing Street as Egyptian President Sisi arrives

The president, who launched the toughest crackdown on Islamists in Egypt’s modern history after toppling President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, is meeting Prime Minister David Cameron to boost the countries’ ties.

There will be no gas shortage problems for any factories in Egypt by the end of November, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a speech on Sunday.

He also underlined that Egypt’s situation is different to that of Europe.

Euronews correspondent Mohammed Shaikhibrahim reported from there: “Condolences from the Egyptian people are the very least they feel they can offer – as Egypt and Russian Federation have had a strong relationship for many years. Sisi and the army rescued Egypt”.

In response to a parliamentary question in the House of Lords on whether Sisi’s visit was appropriate “in the light of the state of the rule of law and human rights in that country”, Earl of Courtdown Patrick Stopford, a government whip, said on Monday that it was in Britain’s national interests.

Standing amid the crowds on Tuesday evening, Yusuf Yusuf, an Egyptian shopkeeper living in Germany, wiped tears from his eyes as he described why he had flown to the United Kingdom to join the protest against Sisi’s visit. “We need to reassess our priorities”, he said.

Additional levels of baggage screening and searches are expected to be implemented on a short-term basis, and the Government plans to work with Egyptian authorities on “long-term sustainable measures” to make the airport safe. Among those who spoke were the sisters of Ibrahim Halawa, a 19-year-old Irish man who has been held in an Egyptian prison since 2013 for participating in the Ra’baa protests against the regime.

In August, Reuters reported that Egypt’s ministry revealed that the country is estimated to import 28.6 million tonnes of crude oil, liquefied natural gas and various other oil products, which accumulates to the value of $16 billion (ZAR203 billion) in the 2015/16 fiscal year. “We want Egyptians to have the freedom of expression and the right to choose their leaders”.

A military-backed authoritarian system was replaced by a short-lived democratic experiment in which the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood held sway.

“Prime Minister Cameron should stop talking up reform in Egypt and speak out on the bad human rights crisis there”, Mepham said.

While Egypt does face a serious insurgency in Sinai Province, the government’s attempts to depict all of its critics as “terrorists” or “national security threats” are false and deeply counterproductive to its purported counterterrorism efforts, Human Rights Watch said.