<p> Egypt and Turkey said Thursday they had held "frank" discussions during the first official diplomatic talks between the regional rivals for eight years, a joint statement said.</p>.<p>"The discussions were frank and in-depth," the statement released by Cairo and Ankara said.</p>.<p>"They addressed bilateral issues as well as a number of regional issues, in particular the situation in Libya, Syria, Iraq, and the need to achieve peace and security in the Eastern Mediterranean region," it added.</p>.<p>A Turkish delegation, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal, met on Wednesday and Thursday with an Egyptian team led by his counterpart Hamdi Loza.</p>.<p>Ankara and Cairo have both faced US pressure since the departure of their ally, former president Donald Trump, and both have been extending olive branches to their neighbours.</p>.<p>Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been sparring since the military's 2013 ouster in Cairo of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, personally backed by Erdogan.</p>.<p>In order to appease Cairo, Erdogan's advisers in March demanded that popular Egyptian exiled talk show hosts sympathetic to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood tone down criticism of Sisi.</p>.<p>Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry noted in March that "words are not enough, they must be matched by deeds".</p>.<p>Turkey and Egypt have also been on opposite sides of the conflict in oil-rich Libya, which descended into chaos in the aftermath of the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted dictator Moamer Kadhafi.</p>.<p>But since the selection this year of a new interim Libyan prime minister in a UN-sponsored process, Cairo and Ankara have appeared more open to a political solution to that conflict.</p>.<p>"The two sides will evaluate the outcome of this round of consultations and agree on the next steps," the statement Thursday added.</p>
<p> Egypt and Turkey said Thursday they had held "frank" discussions during the first official diplomatic talks between the regional rivals for eight years, a joint statement said.</p>.<p>"The discussions were frank and in-depth," the statement released by Cairo and Ankara said.</p>.<p>"They addressed bilateral issues as well as a number of regional issues, in particular the situation in Libya, Syria, Iraq, and the need to achieve peace and security in the Eastern Mediterranean region," it added.</p>.<p>A Turkish delegation, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal, met on Wednesday and Thursday with an Egyptian team led by his counterpart Hamdi Loza.</p>.<p>Ankara and Cairo have both faced US pressure since the departure of their ally, former president Donald Trump, and both have been extending olive branches to their neighbours.</p>.<p>Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been sparring since the military's 2013 ouster in Cairo of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, personally backed by Erdogan.</p>.<p>In order to appease Cairo, Erdogan's advisers in March demanded that popular Egyptian exiled talk show hosts sympathetic to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood tone down criticism of Sisi.</p>.<p>Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry noted in March that "words are not enough, they must be matched by deeds".</p>.<p>Turkey and Egypt have also been on opposite sides of the conflict in oil-rich Libya, which descended into chaos in the aftermath of the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted dictator Moamer Kadhafi.</p>.<p>But since the selection this year of a new interim Libyan prime minister in a UN-sponsored process, Cairo and Ankara have appeared more open to a political solution to that conflict.</p>.<p>"The two sides will evaluate the outcome of this round of consultations and agree on the next steps," the statement Thursday added.</p>