EU official holds meeting with Egypt's interim president

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton (L) meets Adly Mansour Cairo – Akram Ali High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, held a series of meetings in Cairo with Egypt's new leaders , including Interim President Adly Mansour and Vice President, Mohamed ElBaradei.
The British politician arrived in Cairo Wednesday to meet the officials in the new government, following the overthrow of former president Mohammed Morsi.
Sources from the EU delegation in Cairo told Arab Today that Ashton began her visit by holding a meeting with Adly Mansour. The two discussed mechanisms of the roadmap and ways to bring the country back on a democratic path.
Ashton then held talks with Mohamed ElBaradei, who informed the British official about recent events in Egypt as well as the latest developments in the country.
Catherine Ashton is also due to meet Minister of Defence, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party later on Wednesday.
Discussing her trip, Ashton said: “I am visiting Egypt to reinforce our message that there must be a fully inclusive political ?process which supports democracy in the country. The EU is determined to help the people of Egypt on their journey to a better future full of freedom and economic growth.”?
Catherine Ashton last visited Cairo a few days before the June 30 protests. She urged ?political forces to reach an agreement "promptly to achieve democracy."
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday it was too early to judge the future course of Egypt following the ouster of Morsi.
"Very clearly order and stability needs to be restored to the streets, violence needs to be ended, rights need to be protected and the country needs to be able to return to normal business," Kerry told a press conference in Amman.
"We are concerned about political arrests and we are concerned about the freedom of people to be able to participate because we think that's an important part of restoration of the heart and soul of Egypt," Kerry said.
Kerry refused to say whether the United States believed that Morsi's ouster by the military was a coup.
"This is obviously an extremely complex and difficult situation," he said.
"I'm not going to rush to judgement on it. I'm going to wait until our lawyers have done their homework on it," he told a joint press conference in Amman with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.
He was speaking after meeting with Arab League ministers and officials at which the upheaval in Egypt was one of the main topics on the agenda.