Special to WorldTribune.com

Egyptian President Abdul Fatah Sisi is enjoying the West’s warm embrace as Cairo’s strategic importance in the Middle East comes more into focus amid failed states and the threat of terrorism.

Sisi this week arrived in London for his first state visit to the United Kingdom since taking power in a coup during the summer of 2014.

The Egyptian president’s visit to the UK “will be about further integration of Egypt (back) into the international community after the turmoil of the recent past,” Gamal Soltan, a professor of politics at the American University of Cairo, told The Media Line.

Egypt is the world’s most populous Arab nation (82 million) and most of the West’s oil passes through the Suez Canal. Sisi’s fight against Islamists, most notably the Sinai affiliate of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), has also boosted his credentials in the West.

During his visit with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Sisi asked that the UK and NATO not allow Libya to go down the same path as Syria. ISIL has established a foothold in Libya.

The UK played a part in the demise of Moammar Gadhafi, and the chaos that followed, Soltan said, adding that Sisi would urge Cameron to “end the current policy of doing nothing – which is the current UK policy on Libya – as it’s a policy which is not working.”

Some right activists protested Cameron for hosting for the second time in recent weeks a world leader with a questionable record on human rights. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the UK last month.

“David Cameron is rolling out the red carpets once again, this time for a president who has overseen one of the worst crackdowns on human rights in Egypt in decades,” Nadine Haddad of Amnesty International told The Media Line. The rights group is concerned that British weapons sold to Egypt will be used to “commit or facilitate serious human rights violations.”

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