Abu Dhabi _ Osama Sharshar ✍️
A large number of Egyptians residing in Abu Dhabi, as well as some sources in the Zamalek club, conveyed to me, in my capacity as a journalist before a parliamentarian, because I belong to the court of Her Majesty, before being an independent member of the Egyptian parliament, a message and a report to Dr. Badr Abdel Aati, Minister of Foreign Affairs(FA), who continues day and night in meetings and shuttle trips to highlight the role of Egyptian diplomacy in the Gaza and Lebanon crises, to the effect that Ambassador Sherif Eissa, Egypt’s ambassador to Abu Dhabi, failed to sove the Zamalek players’ crisis from its beginning and before it reached the litigation stage.
The sources confirmed that he did not play the required role as an ambassador representing the Egyptian state with all its symbolism, importance, and Arab, regional, and international dimension in containing a “stadium quarrel” with an Emirati citizen whom we love and appreciate and who reciprocates the same feelings, and this is what I witnessed myself while I was at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium and while dealing with Emirati officials while watching the match, of true love and appreciation for the Egyptian people and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and I was even surprised that most Emiratis support Zamalek Club.
But for the crisis to escalate in this unjustified and undiplomatic way and not be resolved at the beginning, this is a major failure, and Sharif Issa, the first person responsible for the problems and concerns of Egyptians in the United Arab Emirates, is primarily responsible.
This reminds me of the honorable Ambassador Sherif Bedawi, the former Egyptian Ambassador to the UAE, who enjoyed the appreciation, respect and trust of the highest Emirati authorities in Abu Dhabi. By God, if he had been present, we would not have heard about the crisis itself, but the continued detention of the players – whose immoral and unsportsmanlike behavior we reject – until October 29th, indicates that the Egyptian embassy did not play its necessary role in containing this crisis that lasted for 48 hours without a solution. I wanted to clarify and convey to Minister Badr Abdel Aati what is being said among some influential Egyptians who have been residing in the UAE for a long time, some of whom have reached 30 years. Which forced some Egyptian representatives in the Emirates to intervene and tried at the last minute to act like Representative Mohamed Tawfik El Gamal, one of the representatives of Menoufia, who is an honorable model for representatives and Egyptians in the Emirates, and tried with Captain Hussein Labib, the club president, who offered a respectful apology that indicates the depth of the historical relationship between the Egyptian and Emirati peoples, along with Representative Hossam El Mandouh, the treasurer of Zamalek Club, to conduct negotiations to end the crisis at the last minute, and these negotiations were taking place inside the office of Representative Mohamed Tawfik El Gamal in Abu Dhabi.
Let us admit the mistakes so that they do not happen again, but we learned from the deep-rooted Egyptian diplomacy that we lived with some of its symbols and heard about the biography of some of them, such as Minister Mahmoud Fawzy, Minister Amr Moussa, Minister Nabil Fahmy, Minister Sameh Shoukry, and Minister Badr Abdel Aati, and we learned from them that everything is negotiable, even negotiation itself is negotiable.
I believe that ambassadors in important countries with a large number of Egyptian workers should be re-selected, such as the Emirates, where more than 750 thousand Egyptians work. They are characterized by commitment, ethics, and respect for laws, and they love its president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. In return, Egyptians in the United Arab Emirates, which was founded by the wise man of the Arabs, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, enjoy a special status with the Emirati people who love Egypt, its leadership and its people, and treat the Egyptian community with respect and politeness. I wanted to raise this to Minister Badr Abdel Aati to take what he deems appropriate to correct some mistakes and concepts among some ambassadors abroad, and to re-evaluate their performance according to their ability to solve the problems of Egyptians abroad, and to emphasize to them that the sons of the Egyptian people are a red line everywhere in the world as long as they respect the rules and laws of the countries in which they work.
