Relations were generally well under the reign of Hosni Mubarak, but were strained after the election of Muslim Brotherhood member Mohamed Morsi. Egypt closed down its embassy in Damascus in June 2013. However, relations were restored a month later, and the embassies in both countries were reopened at that time.
Pan-Arab sentiment was traditionally very strong in Syria, and Nasser was a popular hero-figure throughout the Arab world following the Suez War of 1956. There was thus considerable popular support in Syria for union with Nasser's Egypt. The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party was the leading advocate of such a union.[10]
On 1 February 1958, a group of political and military leaders in Syria proposed a merger of the two states to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. One of the major reasons for this union was worry over the growing influence of the Syrian Communist Party, under the leadership of Khalid Bakdash.[11]
Thus, on 22 February 1958, the United Arab Republic was formed, uniting Syria and Egypt as one nation. Under this union, all parties in Syria were banned, and a massive crackdown on both Syrian communists and Syrian political life as a whole commenced. Syrian elites felt sidelined over perceived Egyptian domination of Syrian, affairs, with Egyptian filling out top Syrian political positions.[12] However, the Egyptian government argued that strict management of Syrian affairs was necessary due to Syrian political chaos.[12] By 1961, Syria was centralized into one province, and Nasser sent his vice president, Abdel Hakim Amer, to be the governor of Syria. This caused a crisis with Abdel Hamid al-Sarraj, one of the last Syrians to hold power in the UAR, resigning as a result.[13] This incident lead many Syrian leaders to believe that Syria was being turned into an Egyptian colony, so a coup d'état in Syria in 1961 arrested Amer, sent him back to Egypt, and declared Syria an independent nation, though Egypt would keep the name 'United Arab Republic' until 1971.[14] In 1963, a Ba'athist coup in Syria overthrew the Syrian government and talks between Egypt and Syria over unification returned, with Syria signing the Cairo Charter, promising an eventual union with Egypt. However, the Ba'athist government in Syria was more concerned over consolidating its rule than speedy unification and fears of a return to Egyptian domination caused Syria to back out of the Cairo Charter.[15]
Nonetheless, relations between Egypt and Syria were cordial after the collapse of the union, and Syria stood by Egypt during the Six-Day War of 1967, which resulted in Egypt losing the Sinai Peninsula and Syria losing the Golan Heights to Israel. After the war, the new Syrian president Hafez al-Assad and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat agreed on a Federation of Arab Republics, a loose organization of political and military unity.
After Sadat's assassination in 1981, Hosni Mubarak became president of Egypt. Mubarak tried to balance Egypt's relations with the Arab World with Egypt's relationship with the United States and Israel.[20] Egypt would support Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, while Syria supported Iran.[21][22][23] Egyptian-Syrian relations remained cold until the Gulf War, when both Syria and Egypt sent troops to expel Iraq from Kuwait, furthering the normalization of relations with Syria.[24][25][26][27] During the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, Hosni Mubarak was acted as a mediator.[28][29] By the 1990s, Syria and Egypt had established positive relations, with Mubarak attempting to resolve the Syrian-Israeli tensions, planning for the return of the Golan Heights to Syria if Syria normalized relations with Israel.[30][31][32][33] Mubarak also cooled tensions between Syria and Turkey in the late 1990s.[34][35]
After the Arab Spring and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, relations became extremely strained. The Muslim Brotherhood is a banned organization and its membership is a capital offense in Syria. Egypt severed all relations with the Syrian Arab Republic in 2013.[36]
An estimated 70,000 and 100,000 Syrian refugees were living in the country under Morsi's rule and the government tried to support Syrian refugees by offering residency permits, assistance on finding employment, allowing Syrian refugee children to register in state schools, and access to other public services.
Diplomatic relations were restored, and the embassies reopened after Morsi was removed from office just weeks later in July 2013. In July 2013, the two countries agreed to reopen the Egyptian consulate in Damascus and the Syrian consulate in Cairo.[41]
In late November 2016, some Arab media outlets reported that Egyptian pilots arrived in mid-November to Syria to help the Syrian government in its fight against the Islamic State and Al Nusra Front.[42] This came after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi publicly stated that he supported the Syrian military in the civil war in Syria.[43] However, several days later, Egypt denied it has a military presence in Syria.[44] However, Egypt was still a vocal supporter for the Russia Intervention and supporter for Bashar al-Assad, the latter of which is alleged by the United States to have sent military aid to, which Egypt denies.
In November 2016, Sisi said that he supported the presidency of Bashar al-Assad in Syria for the sake of stability.[45] He also said that his nation's priority is "supporting national armies", which he said included the Syrian Armed Forces.[46] He also said regarding Egypt's stance in the conflict: "Our stance in Egypt is to respect the will of the Syrian people, and that a political solution to the Syrian crisis is the most suitable way, and to seriously deal with terrorist groups and disarm them,".[46] Egypt's support for a political solution was reaffirmed in February 2017. Egypt's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Ahmed Abu Zeid, said that Egyptian Foreign MinisterSameh Shoukry, "during his meeting with UN Special Envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on Saturday confirmed Egypt's rejection of any military intervention that would violate Syrian sovereignty and undermine opportunities of the standing political solutions.”[47]
In a February 2017 article in Foreign Affairs, Oren Kessler, the Deputy Director for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, suggests there are three reasons for Sisi's pro-Assad position: Egypt's common enemies with Syria (ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood); Egypt and Syria's shared opposition to the policies of President Erdoğan of Turkey; and Egypt's growing relations with Russia, a close ally of Syria.[45]
Egypt has also expressed great interest in rebuilding postwar Syria, with many Egyptian companies and businessmen discussing investment opportunities in Syria as well as participation in the reconstruction effort. Tarik al-Nabrawi, president of Egypt's Engineers Syndicate said that 2018 will witness a “boom and influential role for Egyptian construction companies in Syria and to open the door for other companies — in the electricity, building material, steel, aluminum, ceramics and sanitary material fields among others — to work in the Syrian market and participate in rebuilding cities and facilities that the war has destroyed.”[48]
On 25 February 2018, Syrian state news agency reported that an Egyptian delegation composed of "members of the Islamic and Arab Assembly for supporting Resistance and Future Pioneers Movement as well as a number of figures", including Jamal Zahran and Farouk Hassan, visited the Syrian consulate in Cairo to express solidarity with the Syrian government.[49][better source needed]
After the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called his Syrian counterpart for the first time to offer assistance.[50]
On 27 February 2023, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry arrived in Damascus and met with President Bashar al-Assad and express his country’s solidarity with Syria following the earthquake.[51] The visit to Syria was the first by a high-level Egyptian official since the start of the US-backed war. On April 2, 2023, Syrian Foreign MinisterFaisal Mekdad visited Cairo, the first since the Civil War, aimed at advancing and restoring diplomatic relations.[51]
On 19 May 2023, on the sidelines of the 2023 Arab League Summit, the presidents of both countries met and held a conversation about bilateral relations. It was the first meeting between the heads of the two states since 2011.[52]
Economic ties
By 2021, Egypt's share of Syrian exports was 5.35%, making it Syria's reliable and fifth biggest export partner.[53] In 2021, Egypt was one of the biggest import partners of Syria with a share of 6.56%.[53][54]
^Sharma, Nael (October 29, 2013). Egyptian Foreign Policy From Mubarak to Morsi: Against the National Interest (1st ed.). Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Politics. ISBN978-0415707862.
^ abKessler, Oren (12 February 2017). "Egypt Picks Sides in the Syrian War: How Sisi Learned to Love Assad". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 14 February 2017. Cairo's priority "is to support national armies, for example in Libya," he told Portuguese state television. "The same with Syria and Iraq." The host then pressed Sisi over whether he meant the Syrian government. "Yes," Sisi replied plainly. It was the first time that Egypt, a longtime U.S. ally, openly acknowledged that it sides with the Syrian government. – via Foreign Affairs (subscription required)