Foreign Ministry denies Egypt blocked UN Security Council statement on Turkey

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Saturday denying that Egypt had blocked a UN Security Council statement condemning the attempted coup in Turkey, as has been reported in international media.

Reuters reported on Saturday, that Egypt — which is currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council — blocked a US-drafted statement from the UN Security Council because it called for all parties to respect the “democratically elected government of Turkey.”

Reuters quoted Egypt’s UN Ambassador Amr Abul Atta saying, "We proposed different language that respects democratic and constitutional principles but the Americans refused to engage."

Reuters cited diplomatic sources saying that Egypt justified the proposed change to the statement by saying that the Security Council is "in no position to qualify, or label that government — or any other government for that matter — as democratically elected or not."

Diplomats from the US and the UK reportedly objected to the proposed changes to the text and the Security Council has yet to issue a statement on the attempted coup in Turkey.

In its statement on social media on Saturday evening, the ministry claimed that Egypt only attempted to amend the wording of a part of the statement, but did not object to or block the statement from being released.

The Foreign Ministry explained the statement expresses deep concern over the latest developments in Turkey, condemns violence and instability in the country, and calls on all parties to respect Turkey’s democratically elected government, exercise self-restraint and avoid violence.

As reported by Reuters, the Foreign Ministry confirmed that Egypt proposed amending the third part of the statement so it would not make direct reference to “the democratically elected government of Turkey” and rather make a more general call for all parties to “respect democratic and constitutional principles and the rule of law.”

The diplomatic source said, “It is very surprising that some are trying to place responsibility on Egypt for blocking the statement when it only proposed a simple amendment that does not affect the core message.”