Today (3 January) Foreign Minister Westerwelle spoke on the phone to Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit.

During the telephone conversation, the two Foreign Ministers condemned the suicide attacks on a Coptic church in Alexandria.

The Federal Foreign Minister told his Egyptian counterpart that Germany shared the profound grief of the friends and families of the victims of the attack.

He emphasized that everything had to be done to protect Christians and other religious groups from attacks and violence carried out by extremists.

Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit said that the Egyptian authorities were working flat out to find those responsible for the attack. This, he said, was in Egypt’s own interest because the attack on Coptic Christians was an attack against the entire Egyptian people.