British Embassy in Cairo shuts down after Egypt removes security barriers
Egypt’s foreign policy on Gaza has drawn international criticism, but inside the country it has been met with strong nationalist pushback and official government backing.
The British Embassy in Cairo announced Sunday that it would temporarily close its main Garden City building after Egyptian authorities removed the concrete security barriers that had surrounded the compound for decades, News.Az reports citing the The National.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the embassy said: “On Sunday August 31 security barriers outside the British embassy in Cairo were removed by the Egyptian authorities. The main embassy building will be closed while the impact of these changes is reviewed.”
In recent months, Egyptian embassies in Europe, including London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris, have been the sites of protests against Egypt’s position on the continuing war in Gaza. Israeli bombardments of the strip have killed more than 63,000 civilians since October 2023.
Furthermore, Egyptian authorities arrested dozens of pro-Gaza activists who had aimed to gather and protest in Cairo. Authorities said that the arrested people were trying to enter the militarily sensitive North Sinai province to get to Gaza without the necessary security clearance.
In response to the demonstrations outside Egyptian embassies, a nationalist group was formed. Named the “Egyptian Youth Union Abroad”, it began holding its own pro-state demonstrations outside Egyptian embassies in several European cities.
Videos shared by the union showed members voicing threats to “Muslim Brotherhood supporters” who showed up to protest outside any Egyptian embassies.
Last week, British police detained Ahmed Abdelkader Mido, the head of the union and his deputy, Ahmed Nasser, during clashes with protesters outside the Egyptian Embassy in London. Hours later, Mr Nasser announced his release on his Facebook page, while Mr Abdelkader was released a short time later.
On Tuesday, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Atty held a phone call with the UK's National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell to discuss the detention of Mr Abdelkader. According to a statement from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Mr Abdel Atty urged the British official to “quickly investigate the circumstances of his arrest and the reasons behind it”.
However, despite the two men’s release, calls for a tougher stance against the UK and other countries continue, as support for the protests outside Egyptian embassies continued to intensify, with MPs and pro-government voices demanding reciprocal treatment from Egypt towards the security of foreign embassies on its soil.
This included demands to remove security measures around Western embassies in Cairo, particularly those of the US and UK, which are located in the heavily fortified Garden City district.
A street connecting the embassies, formerly named Latin America Street but today called Tawfik Diab Street, has been closed to cars and pedestrians since the early 1980s. The street was laden with concrete barriers that were there for the security of both embassies, which have now been removed.
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