Extreme fear and caution dominate Egypt’s ruling circles regarding the new Syria in the post-Assad era. This comes amid a campaign to discredit Syria’s new leadership, cast doubt on their intentions and spread fear among Syrians about an uncertain future.

Cairo appears to be one of the most hard-line Arab capitals in response to recent developments in Syria, despite being geographically distant from Damascus. In contrast, countries like Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have made rapid moves for rapprochement. The latter two have already hosted Syria’s new foreign and defence ministers in Riyadh and Doha respectively.

Egyptian concerns are likely to deepen if the transitional government led by Ahmed Al-Sharaa and his team succeeds in establishing a bright new political system grounded in Islamic ideology. This would undoubtedly alarm Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who harbours strong animosity towards Islamists and led a brutal military coup to oust them from power in mid-2013.

As of now, Egypt has not sent any officials to Damascus to meet Syria’s new leaders, nor has it invited them to Cairo. It seems that the Egyptian regime has yet to fully grasp the situation or recover from the shock of Assad’s flight.

Despite a month passing since ousted President Bashar Al-Assad fled on 8 December, Egypt’s engagement with Syria has been limited to a phone call between foreign ministers. In the call, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty urged his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Al-Shaibani, to pursue a “comprehensive political transition led by Syrians without external interference, safeguarding Syria’s unity, stability and Arab identity.”

On a modest scale, Egypt sent its first humanitarian aid flight to Damascus last Saturday, carrying 15 tons of assistance. Meanwhile, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the European Union announced an airlift to provide substantial humanitarian support for Syrians.

READ: Qatar and Saudi Arabia........

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