[An Nahar] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet...
on Friday slammed Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi as an illegitimate tyrant, saying that Cairo could not be relied upon to negotiate a ceasefire with Israel.
"Is Sisi a party (to a ceasefire)? Sisi is a tyrant himself," Erdogan told news hounds.
"He is not different from the others," he said, adding that it was Egypt's current rulers who were blocking humanitarian aid channels to the Gazoo Strip ruled by the Islamist Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement.
Turkey's government has had a strained relationship with Egypt since the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, which Erdogan repeatedly called a "coup".
The spat between Ankara and Cairo came to a head in November when Egypt's military rulers expelled Turkey's ambassador over Erdogan's support for Morsi, prompting a tit-for-tat response from the Turkish government.
Erdogan, who portrays himself as the global Mohammedan leader who speaks up for Paleostinian rights, said supporting an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire would mean legitimizing the administration in Egypt.
"Egypt is not a party ... They are trying to legitimize (the Sisi administration) in Egypt. It is not a legitimate administration. It is illegitimate," he said, lashing out at Israeli attempts to exclude Hamas.
"Hamas is a party there," he said.