Cairo — The British Embassy in Cairo stated Sunday that it had quickly closed its predominant constructing after Egyptian authorities eliminated concrete safety limitations from across the compound’s exterior perimeter. The limitations had been there for many years as a safety measure.
There was no official remark from the Egyptian authorities concerning the elimination of the limitations exterior the U.Ok. embassy, however the transfer got here amid escalating diplomatic stress between Egypt and several other international locations over protests focusing on Egyptian missions overseas, together with within the Netherlands, Austria, France, Turkey, the U.Ok., Canada, the U.S, and in Israel.
Dutch police arrest activists after they chained the doorway of the Egyptian Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands, July 23, 2025, throughout a pro-Palestinian protest amid the conflict in Gaza.
WAHAJ BANI MOUFLEH/Center East Photographs/AFP/Getty
In current months, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have chained the doorways of Egyptian embassies and consulates closed from the skin and spray-painted slogans on their partitions, principally demanding the opening of the Rafah crossing between northeast Egypt and the war-torn Gaza Strip.
Egyptian officers have stated their facet of the Rafah crossing has remained open for the reason that Gaza conflict erupted nearly two years in the past, whereas the Israeli navy controls the Palestinian facet and the way a lot assist is allowed in, and the way many individuals are allowed out.
The Egyptian authorities have argued that the protests will not be random nor peaceable, however moderately organized assaults in opposition to the nation, they usually have accused European host governments of failing to guard their workers and diplomatic premises from vandalism.
International Minister Badr Abdelatty was heard in a video circulated on-line suggesting Egypt may take reciprocal motion, saying: “If their governments won’t provide adequate security for our missions, then we should reconsider our own deployments.”
In just a few instances, activists who again the Egyptian authorities have taken issues into their very own fingers and gathered exterior embassies in European capitals, declaring that they had been there to guard the amenities.
Most of those activists have recognized themselves as members of the so-called “Union of Egyptian Youth Abroad.”
The self-described chief of that group, Ahmed Abdel Qader, was detained in London final week by British police. In response to Egypt’s Ministry of International Affairs, International Minister Badr Abdelatty raised the case in an Aug. 26 cellphone name with U.Ok. Nationwide Safety Adviser Jonathan Powell.
In a assertion printed on-line that day by the Egyptian authorities, the international ministry stated it was following his detention “with great concern” and had requested pressing clarification of the circumstances surrounding the arrest, stressing Egypt anticipated his “prompt release.”
Amid the dispute, a comparatively new political occasion in Egypt, the Nationwide Entrance Get together, issued a prolonged assertion declaring solidarity with the international ministry and condemning the activist’s detention in London.
“We will not protect those who do not protect us,” the occasion, which was based in December, declared in its Aug. 26 assertion. It condemned the detention of “one of Egypt’s loyal sons” as a “blatant violation of justice, human rights, and the rules of diplomatic relations.”
The occasion referred to as on the federal government to rethink the privileges granted to British diplomatic missions in Cairo. It particularly pointed to the U.Ok. Embassy within the prosperous, closely fortified Backyard Metropolis neighborhood the place the U.S. and different embassies are additionally positioned.
The occasion argued that the British facility’s concrete limitations and different safety measures had turned the world into “a closed-off zone” and disrupted residents’ lives, and it demanded that the limitations be eliminated.
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