Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is the president of Egypt, a former general who seized power in a coup in 2013. He enjoyed a warm relationship with Donald Trump during Trump's first term, receiving pride of place alongside the American president and Saudi Arabia's king at the launch of a counter-terrorism centre in Riyadh in 2017.
Al-Sisi has described the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile as "a matter of life and death" for Egypt, which depends on the Nile for most of its water supply. After negotiations with Ethiopia broke down in 2023, Egypt reportedly began sending weapons to the Fano, an Ethiopian rebel movement, and strengthened ties with Eritrea.
His economic mismanagement—unsustainable public debts of around 90% of GDP spent on vanity projects—has left Egypt reliant on bail-outs and increasingly sidelined in the region. By 2025 Gulf rulers no longer regarded him as a significant partner in shaping the Middle East.
While having never invented a sin, I'm trying to perfect several.