(JTA) — Israeli President Shimon Peres congratulated the newly elected president of Egypt, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, on winning the elections.
During Peres’ telephone conversation Friday with al-Sisi, Peres stressed “Israel’s commitment to maintain the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and strengthening the cooperation between the countries,” Peres’ office said in a statement.
Peres wished the Egyptian people “prosperity and success and expressed his hope that President al-Sisi will lead Egypt to great achievements,” the statement read.
The statement did not say what al-Sisi said in reply, except that he “thanked President Peres for his warm words.”
Al-Sisi was officially confirmed as Egypt’s next president on Tuesday evening, after the country’s electoral commission announced that he had won 96.1 percent of last week’s presidential runoff.
Al-Sisi is slated to be sworn in as president on Sunday, in a ceremony to which dozens of foreign heads of state have been invited – including the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.
In 2012, Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was elected president in an internationally supervised election that drew 52 percent of Egypt’s voters to the polls, but lasted less than a year in office before the military removed him from power and installed al-Sisi.
