Egypt's president may have said too much in a '60 Minutes' interview — which Egypt then tried to have killed

By Tamer El-Ghobashy January 4 at 1:29 PM

Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi told CBS News that Egypt and Israel are cooperating to battle a stubborn Islamic State insurgency in the Sinai, and denied that the tens of thousands of Egyptians jailed since he took power are political prisoners.

Those two statements are newsy, but not necessarily new.

It’s what happened after he granted the interview to “60 Minutes” in New York that is making headlines.

In a story promoting the sit-down with Sissi, set to air Jan. 6, CBS says Egypt’s ambassador (it was not clear to which country) contacted the “60 Minutes” crew and told them not to air the interview.

CBS did not elaborate on the ambassador’s demand, saying only that Sissi’s answers “were not the kind of news his government wanted broadcast.”

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