President Barack Obama has told his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that jailed Australian journalist Peter Greste and his two Al-Jazeera colleagues should be freed, US officials say.
Obama and Sisi met for the first time on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday.
Deputy National Security advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters aboard Air Force One that the talks were "productive" and focused on issues wracking the Middle East, including US operations to take on the Islamic State group and counter-terrorism.
He said that Obama specifically raised "our ongoing concerns about Egypt's political trajectory. They had a frank exchange on those issues".
"The president raised a number of specific concerns that we have related to human rights," Rhodes said, including the rights to free speech and the rights of journalists.
Washington has frequently raised the plight of Greste and two other Al-Jazeera journalists jailed by Egypt after being accused of ties with Islamists.
"The president expressed his view that those journalists should be released," Rhodes said.
Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed were convicted in June of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood and spreading false news that portrayed Egypt as being in a state of "civil war".
Greste and Fahmy received seven-year terms, while Mohamed was sentenced to 10 years, in a case that sparked international outrage.
Eleven defendants tried in absentia, including one Dutch and two British journalists, were given 10-year sentences.
Washington and Cairo are seeking common ground after turmoil sparked by last year's toppling by Sisi, a former army chief, of Egypt's first elected president, Islamist Mohamed Morsi.
Share
