File Photo: Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty. AFP
Abdelatty made the remarks to Al-Masry Al-Youm on the sidelines of the inaugural session of the Maspero Cultural Salon at the National Media Authority (NMA).
The move follows the removal earlier this month of concrete blocks outside the British embassy, which had been cordoned off for years.
The embassy briefly suspended operations and closed its main building last week before resuming days later, amid tensions over the brief detention of an Egyptian national in London.
Ahmed Abdel-Kader, head of the Union of Egyptian Youth Abroad, was briefly detained in London after a confrontation with Muslim Brotherhood supporters outside Egypt’s embassy. He was released following intervention from Cairo.
Abdelkader has been active outside Egyptian diplomatic missions in Britain, staging demonstrations and accusing Brotherhood exiles of disrupting embassy operations and deflecting attention from the Israeli war on Gaza.
The dispute is part of wider friction: in recent weeks, Egypt has summoned several European ambassadors over what it called lapses in security at its embassies, warning that reciprocal measures could be applied to foreign missions in Cairo.
During a televised interview in August, Abdelatty said that the protection of Egyptian embassies abroad was “non-negotiable,” and warned host countries that Egypt would enforce the same standards at foreign missions on its soil.
Security barriers around the British and American embassies in Cairo were first installed in 2003, after the Interior Ministry ordered the closure of surrounding streets during the US invasion of Iraq.
A network of concrete and electronic barriers was set up at 12 access points leading to the embassies in Garden City.
Although Egypt’s Administrative Court ordered their removal in 2011 following complaints from residents and businesses, they were repeatedly reinstated during periods of political unrest, including the 2013 anniversary of Egypt’s revolution and in 2014, when the British embassy was shut for nine days due to security concerns.
Short link: