In a speech before the African Union Summit in Equatorial Guinea, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that 30 June was a full-fledged revolution and that the armed forces sided with the will of the people.
“My people were saddened when you took a different position and did not support them,” he added.
“Although Egypt was absent from the African Union for some time, its concern for Africa never stopped,” he said, adding that Egypt cannot be separated from its African identity.
He also said that the adoption of the Constitution earlier this year and the completion of the presidential elections will bring back Africa’s confidence in Egypt.
“We are happy to see the union revising its position to support the will of the people,” he added.
“The 30 June revolution spared the country a civil war and an unknown future,” he said. “The people rallied around a single goal to achieve their hopes and aspirations for a better future.”
“Just as independence was a heroic epic fought by Africa for decades, the revolutions of the Egyptian people on 25 January and 30 June were common aspirations for freedom, justice and dignity,” Sisi added. “This was expressed in the Constitution, but there is still a lot to do in the way of democracy."
Analysts said that the AU had suspended Egypt's membership because it had concerns that Egypt had swayed from its democratic path by ousting its first democratically-elected leader via the military and then violently cracked down on the political opposition, killing thousands of mostly unarmed Muslim Brotherhood protesters and arresting many more.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
