Al-Sisi’s statements were addressed to the Egyptian people, who suffer from harsh economic conditions, to bear the hard times.
Many Egyptian activists on the social media mocked al-Sisi for his comments and enclosed a hashtag al-Sisi _Fridge that took the highest rate on Twitter trend chart.
In response to Iyad Madani’s statements, Foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said during a parliamentary session that Madani’s comments were “unacceptable”, adding that they represented a “gross mistake”.
Shoukry also said,”We released a statement to condemn the comments made by an international civil servant who leads a prestigious organization that Egypt is proud to be one of its founders.”
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in his statement that Egypt shall accordingly review its position towards the Organisation’s Secretariat and Secretary-General.
The statement added,”Such remarks do not conform with the responsibilities and the duties of the Organization’s Secretary General position, and fundamentally affect his ability to carry out his duties.”
For his part, the former Saudi minister Iyad Madani apologized for his comments in a statement saying that he didn’t intend to offend the Egyptian leadership.
Iyad Madani’s mockery came at a time of rising tensions between Cairo and Riyadh as a result of Egypt’s divergent stances in sensitive issues to Riyadh.
Egypt has voted in favor of a Russian-backed draft resolution in the UN Security Council on Syria, which was opposed by SaudiArabia .
As a result, Egypt’s stance has angered Egypt’s major Gulf backer which condemned Egypt’s vote and described it with the ” painful” stance.
After the voting, the Saudi ambassador to the UN, Abduallah al-Mouallimi said, “It was painful that the Senegalese and Malaysian stance was closer to the Arab’s consensus than the Egyptian delegation.”
He also said that he feels pity for these countries that voted for the Russian resolution, stressing that his country will continue backing the Syrian people by all means.
Two days following the voting, Saudi state-owned oil company Aramco announced halting oil product supply to Egypt.
The sudden halt, triggered a scornful media campaign against Saudi Arabia, as it was seen as a political decision. On the other side , Saudi journalists and media men criticized the Egyptian regime and blamed the kingdom or its financial generosity to al-Sisi regime .