The German delegation arrives in Cairo

The Munich Security Conference is holding two seminars between Arab and German leaders, the first on 25-26 October in Cairo and the second on 27-28 October in Doha.

Egypt – alongside Syria and Saudi Arabia – is engaged against the Muslim Brotherhood, while Qatar – together with Turkey and Iran – supports this secret society.

Egyptian President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry and Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit were among the 40-odd participants in the Cairo meeting, including the Foreign Ministers of Niger, Uganda and Djibouti.

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, his Foreign Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, are expected to attend the Doha meeting with about forty other personalities including the Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister, the President of Iraqi Kurdistan, and the UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths. The recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize from Yemen, Tawakkol Karman, will represent the Muslim Brotherhood.

The German government will be represented at both meetings by the Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, Niels Annen, formerly a researcher at the German Marshall Fund and then a Socialist MP.

This initiative of the Munich Security Conference comes at a time when it has not organized events outside Germany for two years and Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to implement the recommendations of the German Marshall Fund and the Stiftung Wissenschaft Politik: Engage militarily in the expanded Middle East alongside the United States.