Brussels, 28/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 24 October, Europeans condemned the attack the same day against Egyptian security staff at a checkpoint in Sinai, Egypt. “The EU condemns terrorism in all its forms”, the spokesperson for High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton stated. A suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car at high speed into an army roadblock, leaving 30 soldiers dead.
Several European ministers for foreign affairs have condemned the attack. The UK's foreign affairs minister, Philip Hammond, stated that “there can never be a justification for such actions” and that his government stood by the Egyptian government in the fight against terrorism. “We stand alongside the Egyptian government in their fight against terrorism” in Sinai and in beating the toxic ideology that inspires it, Hammond said - who met his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Choukri, in London on 27 October. In the same vein, the Cypriot foreign minister, Ioannis Kasoulides, assured Cyprus' “full support” for Egypt in “these difficult times”, and stated that Cyprus was in full solidarity with the Egyptian government in “their efforts to fight effectively against the scourge of terrorism and to prevent the terrorist groups from hindering the full implementation of the roadmap towards a full democratic transition”. Belgium's foreign minister, Didier Reynders, described the attack as “cowardly”.
Following this attack, Egypt has decreed a state of emergency for three months, accompanied by a curfew in part of northern and central Sinai, a bastion for jihadists. Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has also issued a decree authorising military courts to judge civilians accused of attacks against the infrastructure of the state. (CG)