“The Gulf tour that Prime Minister Essam Sharaf was scheduled to begin tomorrow has been postponed until Monday due to the fact that Sharaf has many commitments at home,” said Ahmed al-Saman, the prime minister’s media spokesman.
Sharaf was scheduled to go on a two-day Gulf tour to visit Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.
The delay came after guards accompanying Sharaf in his tour arrived in Riyadh.
An Egyptian diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, denied that sensitivities arising from Cairo’s plans to normalize relations with Tehran prompted the delay.
“Relations between Egypt and Gulf countries are strong. Prime Minister Essam Sharaf wouldn’t have scheduled the tour if there was really any sensitivity in relations between Egypt and Gulf countries,” the diplomat said.
He pointed out that Egypt’s internal unrest, especially in Qena, pressed Sharaf to postpone the tour.
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf’s tour was meant to assure Gulf countries that the Egyptian revolution is purely Egyptian and that Egypt does not aim at prompting unrest in the Gulf. “The revolution came as a result of the accumulation of social, political and economic problems in the Egyptian society and it aims to reform life in Egypt in order to regain its leading role among Arab countries,” the diplomat said.