ISMAILIYA: Egypt President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi unveiled a “new” Suez Canal in a ceremony on Thursday here in Ismailiya, in the latest move to boost the country’s economy.
Sisi, sporting ceremonial military uniform, arrived on board an historic yacht leading a naval flotilla as fighter planes and helicopters flew overhead.
The Egyptian President signed the document presented by the Suez Canal Authority to allow the new waterway for ship navigation.
“With God’s blessings, I, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, President of Egypt, gives permission for the operation of the New Suez Canal,” the Egyptian president said in his opening speech.
“Within one year, Egyptians exerted a great effort to offer the world and to Egypt a gift for humanity, for development, for building and for construction,” Sisi added.
During Sisi’s speech, the president paused while two giant ships were seen in the background crossing in different directions through two passages of the canal amid cheers of the attendees.
Sisi gave the go-ahead signal for the national “New Suez Canal” project on Aug. 6 last year and ordered it to be completed in one year sharp.
The project included a newly-dug 35-km waterway alongside the original 190-km Suez Canal, plus a 37-km expansion and deepening of some parts of the existing one.
“The new canal is one of a thousand steps that we Egyptians are required to go through,” the Egyptian president continued, adding that the establishment of the new waterway was done under unusual circumstances amid destructive terrorism.
“History will tell that Egypt faced over the past couple of years the most dangerous extremist terrorist thought that could have ruined the land,” Sisi told the attendees.
Security was tight, with the Islamic State jihadist group’s threat to execute a Croatian kidnapped near Cairo threatening to overshadow the celebrations, showcased by authorities as proof the country is safe.
The event in the port city of Ismailiya attended by several heads of state, including French President Francois Hollande, comes two years after then army chief Sisi overthrew his Islamist predecessor.
Mohamed Morsi’s ouster unleashed a deadly crackdown on Islamists, and a jihadist insurgency has since killed hundreds of soldiers east of the Suez Canal.
