While diplomatic ties between Egypt and Turkey have been strained since the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Turkey this week signaled its readiness to thaw relations with Egypt by welcoming bilateral talks between the countries. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Thursday told Turkish state media that Turkey would not be against convening bilateral meetings with representatives of the Egyptian government during the upcoming Islamic Conference. The conference, which is expected to be attended by a wide array of Islamic countries, is slated to take place in April this year. “We meet many Egyptian officials in international forums,” Çavuşoğlu said, adding that Turkey welcomes Egypt to take part in a proposed working group aimed at coordinating international efforts in crisis-ridden Libya, which has been embroiled in a protracted armed conflict ever since former leader Muammar Qaddafi was toppled in a popular uprising in 2011. “Before everything else, we need to convince those who haven’t joined the process [of resolving the Libya crisis]. To this aim, while in Rome, we proposed the formation of a working group and we said that Egypt should also take part in this…
