Egypt's President pledges to protect foreigners, diplomatic missions

PanARMENIAN.Net - Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi pledged to protect foreigners and diplomatic missions in his country on Thursday, Sept 13, two days after protesters against a U.S.-made film depicting the Prophet Mohammad scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Reuters reported.

"We ought to protect all visitors, tourists and diplomatic missions," Mursi told a news conference in Brussels. "In Egypt, as you know, and everywhere in the Arab world, there is anger regarding what happened recently, those who made up that short movie that defames the prophet. We strongly condemn that."

He said the Egyptian government had assured U.S. President Barack Obama that it would not permit "any such event, any such occurrence in our country against the embassies present in our territories".

"We will cooperate with the European Union, with the other countries, with the American administration in order to prevent such events in the future," he said.

Mursi was in Brussels for his first visit to Europe since becoming Egypt's first freely elected leader in June.